Rag and Bone

Reading just two James R. Benn novels is enough to make his Billy Boyle books one of my favorite mystery series. “Rag and Bone” (2010), like “Billy Boyle,” the first in the series, is an ideal blend of history, mystery and wartime adventure.

Boyle was a young police detective before World War II intervened and he was assigned to the staff of his Uncle Ike, none other than Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, to solve a ticklish murder. More murders follow, and so the series continues. Even in wartime, when people are being killed all the time, a murder is another matter.

This time the murder that draws Ike's attention is that of a Russian officer stationed in London. Evidence suggests the killer could be Polish, perhaps even Billy's best show more friend, Kaz, a Polish officer who got out of Poland before the Germans invaded. Now the Soviets covet Poland, and Kaz blames them for the massacre of Polish prisoners at Katyn Forest (an actual event), for which the Soviets blame the Germans. Because the United States has a large Polish population and because the Allies need the Russians to help defeat Germany, the situation is tricky. Ike wants his nephew to discover what really happened to that Russian officer, preferably without making things anymore complicated than they already are.

His investigation takes Billy into both the London underworld and the underground, for there seems to be a connection between the murder and a poetry-reading gangster who, because of German air attacks, has made his temporary headquarters in a subway tunnel. Along the way he comes into contact with Winston Churchill and even Kim Philby, later discovered to have been a spy for the Soviets.

Benn keeps the plot moving nicely, gives us fascinating characters and turns a riveting murder mystery into a painless history lesson. show less

Ever wonder if Danny Boyle from Chris Grabenstein's Ceepak novels and Billy Boyle from James R. Benn's World War II series might be cousins? Although the two series differ in almost every respect, they have one thing in common -- the character growth of the Boyle boys as their series progress. Each starts as a wide-eyed innocent (despite Billy's police experience in South Boston) and through experience and mentoring learns to deal with moral ambiguity, to find his center, and to judge when to live by the rules and when to break them.
In Rag and Bone, Lt. Billy Boyle's joyous reunion with Diana is cut short when he's ordered to London. A Soviet officer has been murdered execution-style in a London park, and with plans for an invasion show more beginning to come to fruition, Uncle Ike, newly named commander of SHAEF, wants no friction among the Allied forces. Returning to London to stay with his friend Kaz, a Polish nobleman in exile, Billy learns of the Katyn Forest massacre, which the Soviets are blaming on the Nazis despite evidence to the contrary. Kaz's outrage is such that Billy considers he may be a suspect in the murder. As Billy discovers involvement by the London underworld and the NKVD, the plot grows ever more complicated. The book starts a little slowly, but picks up speed as it goes along, and there is plenty of excitement toward the end. But the most enjoyable part of the book for me was watching Billy's continued character development.
I'm of the generation that, while we didn't live through World War II, grew up with it as recent history, so most of what Benn writes about is familiar to me. However, don't be scared off if you're a younger person who doesn't happen to be a WWII buff. Without being in the least didactic, Benn explains what you need to know to follow Billy's adventures. Highly recommended. show less

Billy Boyle returns to England, part of the advance group for Uncle Ike's new offices. However, he really has to dig into the death of an ally, a Russian official who may have come to harm via the Poles. Once again, Benn creates such a great sense of place in this historical mystery. From some of the people of London still living in the Tube long after the Blitz to the unsure feelings between our allies in WWII, Billy and the reader have a lot to learn about human motivation. There is a bit of wistfulness for home in Billy's thoughts, he's been separated from family for over a year. Although in this series, he's surrounded himself with a different sort of family. The displaced Kaz, Big Mike from Detroit and the mysteriously occupied show more Diana are always on Billy's side. show less

Darker than previous installments

Darker than previous installments

Darker than previous installments

Darker than previous installments