Billy Boyle

James R. Benn: The Phantom Patrol

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Billy Boyle #19

War is hell. In his gentle, narrative manner, James R. Benn has demonstrated through 19 and counting Billy Boyle novels this harsh verity. All of them, in their own way, are excellent, some of them more traditionally structured mysteries, like the locked room puzzler The Red Horse (2020) or the English village set Proud Sorrows (2023). But they all take place during WWII and feature at least one bravura battle or action scene.  Book 19 is set during the Battle of the Bulge, and even though hostilities would end several months later, Billy finds himself still in the thick of things. read more

James R. Benn: Road of Bones

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This book will be published on September 7.

For new readers, the Billy Boyle books are set during WWII and feature an army captain, Billy, who investigates the murders that occur on the edges (or directly inside of) the war. It’s now 1944, and after giving Billy a bit of a break in the last book, The Red Horse, author James Benn plunges Billy and his sidekick Big Mike directly into the action.  Road of Bones begins and ends with two bravura action scenes, a type of writing at which Benn excels.  Action scenes can easily become dull or repetitive (to this crime reading veteran, anyway), but Benn is specific, descriptive in a concise way, and the pacing of his action scenes is perfection.  The more I read, the more I think pacing is all, and Benn has the gift. read more

James R. Benn: The Red Horse

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This book will be published September 1.

James R. Benn continues to explore all the nooks and crannies of the mystery genre, keeping things fresh even in book 15 of this long lived and now beloved series.  Main series character Billy Boyle started as a beat cop in Boston, learning the “job” from his father and uncles, who get him a (supposedly) soft wartime post with “Uncle Ike”.  As any reader of this series knows, Billy becomes an investigator, finding the smaller crimes within the larger confines of WWII.  Sometimes the war is front and center but Benn is always a meticulously detailed pure mystery writer, making his books a real pleasure to read. read more