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by: James R. Benn
List Price: $12.00Amazon.com's Price: $9.60 You Save: $2.40 (20%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781569474761
ISBN: 1569474761
Label: Soho Press
Manufacturer: Soho Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: September 01, 2007
Publisher: Soho Press
Sales Rank: 336269
Studio: Soho Press
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
'This book has got it all-an instant classic.'-Lee Child, author of The Hard Way
'A tale as tight as a drum. Doesn't get any better than this.'-Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, author of the Poppy Rice mysteries
'It is a pleasure marching off to war with spirited Billy Boyle. He is a charmer, richly imagined and vividly rendered. And he tells a finely suspenseful yarn.'-Dan Fesperman, author of The Prisoner of Guantnamo
'Rich with atmosphere. . . . A treat from start to finish.'-Owen Parry, author of the Abel Jones mysteries
What's a twenty-two-year-old Irish cop from Boston doing at Beardsley Hall having lunch with Haakon, King of Norway, and the rest of the Norwegian government in exile? Billy Boyle himself wonders. Back home, he'd just made detective (with a little help from family and friends) when war was declared. Unwilling to fight-and perhaps die-for England, he was relieved when his mother wangled a job for him on the staff of a general married to her distant cousin, Mamie. But the general turns out to be Dwight D. Eisenhower; his headquarters are in London, which is undergoing the Blitz; and Uncle Ike has a special assignment for Billy: He wants Billy to be his personal investigator.
Operation Jupiter, the impending invasion of Norway, is being planned. Billy is to catch a spy amongst the Norwegians. He doubts his own abilities, and a theft and two murders test his investigative powers. But to his own surprise, Billy proves to be a better detective than anyone suspected.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Great read....
Great read....what more can I say? Well written prose, great premise, interesting genre, interesting characters. Looking forward to reading the next in the series...
Rating:  - Can the cliché and create truer characters
Amusing but inconsequential mystery by writer whose day job is in IT and has been "a librarian for many years." Not sure who would combine those jobs, or how!--OK, I have to confess, I work in IT and have a Master of Library Science, so perhaps I'm more than just a little jealous.
Formulaic characters and dialogue spell the beginner's work (this is his second published novel). Not awful, but not better than what a decent writer could do in his spare time.
The plot is ... Read More
Rating: - Pick This Boyle
Once you get passed the silliness of our hero being Eisenhower's nephew, settle in for some good fun. It's a cross between a "cozy" stately, home murder mystery, and a Ken Follet style cloak and dagger yarn. What's best though, is that it's all served up with some seriousness and a few nice passages of solid writing. Terrific finish. Many times when yet get a new book set in the 40s, the hero sounds like one of the Dead End Kids and they over do the slang. There's some fun with that here, but ... Read More
Rating: - Fun, light reading
An easy book to read. The plot keeps you hooked and the WWII setting, mostly in England, conjures a familiar somehow comforting atmosphere. Characters in this book have simple values, and do not challenge with moral ambiguity.
Rating:  - Lukewarm for Benn
I'm lukewarm about this; I'd have been disappointed if I were expecting more. Yes, the characters are stereotypical but they're well drawn. The plot takes a long time to get there but somewhat pulls together at the end. Not much thriller (even in what should be the thriller parts). Overall character-driven and not plot-driven.
I MUCH prefer Aaron Elkins to James Benn (both his WW-II era books as well as his anatomy expert series). I think Elkin's Turncoat and Loot are much better WW-II ... Read More
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