James R. Benn

First sentence (from the prologue): It began as a glow in the night sky, a faint flicker barely visible in the swirling, low clouds and the pelting rain. Stephen Elliot saw it as he shut the door behind him and made for his automobile.

Premise/plot: Billy Boyle, our soldier-detective protagonist, returns for his eighteenth mystery in Proud Sorrows. In this one, set in November 1944, Billy Boyle (and his friend, Kaz) are on leave and visiting the home/manor of his girlfriend, Diana Seaton. show more They are guests of her father, but not the only guests. Kaz's sister is a guest as well and recovering from her injuries gotten at a concentration/detainment camp. She was experimented on. (Also a guest, her full-time nurse, a long-time resident of the village.) Diana herself is home on leave at this time. It should make for a lovely holiday--even for war times. Surely the end is near--at least on the European front, right? But this holiday seems doomed...

It isn't too long before Billy Boyle is back hard at work on a case, drawn into a complex mystery involving several dead bodies. A BODY has been found--washed up in the Wash--in a German war plane. Not so mysterious until they realize--almost right away--that it is not the German pilot in the pilot's seat--but a long-missing resident of the village, Stephen Elliot of Marston Hall. HOW did his body get in the plane? What happened to the German pilot? Elliot's death was obviously murder--based on the evidence of his skull--but was the German pilot murdered too? WHICH of the village residents are suspect?

The case keeps getting more complex as he begins to question everything and everyone....there are MANY secrets in the village. Not all relate to the murders, of course, but all must be investigated to sort out WHO had the motive and opportunity to commit what might have been a near-perfect crime.

My thoughts: I loved this one. I ABSOLUTELY loved, loved, loved it. I loved the small ("quaint") British village. I love how the village was peopled--the characterization was marvelous. I love how substantive the mystery was. I love how it hinted at history. (The victim was researching King John and how he lost his treasure when attempting to cross the Wash). I love all the side characters that we've come to know throughout the book series--Kaz, of course, Big Mike, Diana, etc. But I also love all the villagers. (Well, most of them.) The book had a WONDERFUL quality to it. This presents a different element of the war mystery. This isn't so much front-lines and battle zones (as some have been) but more home-front and behind the scenes. This doesn't mean that Billy is safe and that there are no dangers....after all the village has at least one murderer....

Highly recommend the whole entire series. show less

Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, young city cop Billy Boyle gets drafted to the war front in London. Fortunately for Billy, his uncle General Ike Eisenhower steers him away from the battlefields and requests that his favorite nephew become his own personal investigative detective. Using his Bostonian police experience, Billy is to begin his military tour of duty solving war crimes.

As an Irish New Englander born and bred, Billy is quite green around the gills when his shiny show more black polished combat boots arrive in foggy, wet London feeling naïve and foreign. As he settles in and is introduced to his superiors and peers, Uncle Ike tosses him his first mission. A man has been murdered. A Norwegian visitor who was involved in a plot of espionage and was part of a plan hatched by the American/British partnership to assist Norway in their fight against the Germans, has either committed suicide, or has been pushed out a four story window of the hotel they are all bunking in.

Billy doesn't want to admit he's not really qualified for this kind of detective work and finds him self taking on the case to make his uncle proud. Using the skills his father taught him about the art of detection and catching criminals, Lieutenant Billy Boyle soon finds himself digging up clues, and becoming a regular "Sam Spade" of World War II.

James Benn has created a sensational war hero that all readers will enjoy. The writing is superb, the characters are so real and wonderfully created, and the plot is a fun filled adventure mix of history, murder mystery, action, romance and delightful little dollops of dry humor to make you smile as you turn the pages. The book on the whole has a very nostalgic Noir feel to it. I truly felt I was there with Billy as the diving bomber pilots screamed from the sky, when bullets abound whizzed by his head, and as he nearly drowns in 40-waves when aboard a battleship being fired on from all sides. Steeped in the slang of the 1940s, memories of the music and fashion of the times, this first installment in the Billy Boyle series is really fun! 5 shining stars! show less

A newcomer to the Billy Boyle series can enjoy James R. Benn's The Red Horse" as a stand-alone, since Benn provides us with enough background information to follow the proceedings. Captain Boyle, a Yank who was once a detective in Boston, is a distant cousin of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom he calls "Uncle Ike." The book is set in England in 1944, after the liberation of Paris, and Billy is in a bad way, both physically and emotionally. After a mission in France ended in disaster, he show more was admitted to Saint Albans Convalescent Hospital for Allied military personnel. With his brain in a fog, he sees a patient named Thomas Holland plunging from atop a clock tower to his death.

St. Albans, which was once an asylum for lunatics and paupers, is a bleak and unwholesome place. There is no privacy, the food is wretched, and the patients are expected follow the rules or pay the price for their failure to obey. Although he respects his psychiatrist, Billy is reluctant to discuss what is tormenting him. Among Billy's symptoms are tremors (he is withdrawing from pep pills), insomnia, paranoia, and hallucinations. When more dead bodies turn up, Billy—whose condition is improving—begins his own murder investigation. He interviews witnesses, engages in breaking and entering, enlists the help of his pals (one of whom is a codebreaker), and begins to suspect that certain high-ranking members of British intelligence hold the key to solving the murders.

The author, whose writing style is fast-paced, lively, and expressive, provides a window into Billy's unsettled mind. We feel for this haunted man who is guilt-ridden, anxious, and worried about the love of his life, Diana, who was arrested by the Gestapo. In addition, Benn hauntingly portrays the other broken men and women in Saint Albans, who are trying to deal with the terrible carnage they have witnessed and the blood that will be on their hands until the day they die. This engrossing tale involves deceit, betrayal, espionage, vengeance, and madness. it combines psychological suspense with social commentary about the ways in which violent conflicts leave indelible scars on countries as well as individuals. Billy is smart, resourceful, daring, and empathetic. In "The Red Horse," he shows that he has the cunning and courage to take on powerful adversaries who are determined to conceal their reprehensible deeds. show less

I was happy to see that Death's Door reunited Billy Boyle with his sidekick Kaz as they head to the Vatican to investigate the murder of an American monsignor. Their relationship and shared background brought about by the progression of WWII is only one of several reasons I enjoy this series and try to sing its' praises to all. And as usual, I found myself in another arena of WWII that I didn't know much about, as Benn used events and characters based in historical fact to weave this show more twisting murder mystery. At one point, a character talks very interestingly about temporal awareness and that the Vatican's neutrality always outlasts the rise and fall of various tyrants. However, one of the story lines seems to be based in some fact, where many refugees and some former POW's were cared for by religious personnel. This was the seventh book about Billy Boyle and on the strength of the series as a whole, this one gets five stars too. Can't wait for another well made tale by Benn.

p. 271 "If prayer flew as quickly as gossip, all the saints in heaven could not keep up with it." show less