Billy Boyle: A World War II Mystery: 1 (A Billy Boyle WWII Mystery)

I was turned on to this series a few months ago by one of the readers of my substack. She was right!As a serious, published World War II historian, and as an author of dramatic fiction myself (movies), I know how hard it is to get a series like this right. The history has to be dead-on, so that the reader is willing to follow the protagonist through a door that didn't actually exist back then, into an adventure that has to work in terms of the era it is set in.I am so far at book number 6, and this series does not disappoint on any level. The history is dead on accurate, and provides the reader a backdrop that is so richly detailed one can learn hard history while being entertained. The mysteries are superb. So far, I have not been able to predict a twist before it arrives (despite knowing how the clockwork works), and when it arrives I am surprised, and then I think to myself "Yes! Exactly!" because it has been so well set-up in such a subtle manner. I'm the magician who knows how to pull the rabbit out of the hat, who is overjoyed when I can watch another do it and not "see it happen." James R. Benn will not disappoint you.You really do have to start at book 1, because later books reference events that happened in previous books.Just pick them up and start reading. I'm certain I'm going to enjoy the next 12 as much as I have the first six. I haven't run across a mystery series as good as this one is since James Lee Burke and Michael Connelly.Read. In. Confidence.Thomas McKelvey Cleaverauthor, "Clean Sweep: VIII Fighter Command Against the Luftwaffe 1942-45", and others.

Good plot. Interesting characters that are believable.

Gripping from the start, introduces the characters quickly and plenty of twists in the plot. Was one of those books where I told myself one more chapter I've got work tomorrow! and the suns coming up and the birds are singing outside before I realised I had finished it!

Well written with a decent plot and interesting characters, particularly Billy, who's not your average hero. Having just made Detective back in Boston just before Pearl Harbour, Billy is drafted but ends up in London for a supposedly cushy office job.Instead he gets involved investigating a case of espionage and murder.A little slow at times but never boring.

Did NOT like it at all...can't say much more about it...I didn't bother to read it all....very boring to say the least.