The White Ghost

From the preface (explaining the time jump backward in Billy Boyle's service) to the very end, I was kept guessing at both the true nature of the crime and the perpetrator. Billy and Kaz head to the Solomon Islands, to investigate a murder that happened shortly after a PT boat was destroyed, one captained by another Bostonian, young Jack Kennedy. Benn does a great job using a real historical figure without getting too cheesy. Per usual, Billy faces some resistance from officers wondering why he has so much lee-way in investigating a crime that soon captures more victims. I don't know a whole lot about the Pacific Theater in WWII, but found the information about the Australians, and natives of the Islands being Coastwatchers very show more interesting. And yet another book this year that touches on Amelia Earhart. Benn bases a character in the book Deanna Reynolds, on a nurse that is evacuated to Guadalcanal during the early part of the war and is rumored to be Amelia. It's bits of history, mixed with the fictionalized murder that make these Billy Boyle books so good. show less

Finished The White Ghost by James Benn. Billy Boyle and Katz, his Polish friend and sidekick are hauled out of North Africa and sent to the South Pacific to investigate the murder of a native Coastwatcher. John F. Kennedy might be implicated in the crime. Billy isn't happy with the assignment because he and Jack have history. I found this one harder to read because my father was in the Pacific theater, instead of in Europe, and it clearly was a much worse place to be.

Benn fills a gap in Billy's military life by sending him to resolve a murder possibly affecting a PT boat commander and future US president. Billy is in the S Pacific, after the capture of Guadalcanal and during the subsequent Solomon Islands campaign, aptly and accurately portrayed by the author. Murders among the horrific combat with the fanatic Japanese are investigated by Billy and Kaz. while involving them in several quite plausible combat scenarios. Sticking to the typical police procedure mantra that sex or money cause most murders leads them to a most unlikely,perpetrator. The chase concludes in strange but suitable solution.

I can tell I'm going to love this, and will have a massive case of withdrawal after finishing it. Might need to go back and re-read the series from the start, soon. Just until the next book comes out.