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Billy Boyle: A World War II Mystery (Billy Boyle Ww2 Mystery 1)
 
 

Billy Boyle: A World War II Mystery (Billy Boyle Ww2 Mystery 1) [Kindle Edition]

James R. Benn
2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Product Description

“This book has got it all—an instant classic.”—Lee Child, author of The Hard Way
 
“It is a pleasure marching off to war with the 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 Guantanamo
 
What’s a twenty-two-year-old Irish American cop who’s never been out of Massa-chusetts before doing at Beardsley Hall, an English country house, having lunch with King Haakon of Norway? Billy Boyle himself wonders. Back home in Southie, he’d barely made detective 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. But the general turns out to be Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose headquarters are in London, which is undergoing the Blitz. And Uncle Ike wants Billy to be his personal investigator.
 
Billy is dispatched to the seat of the Norwegian government in exile. Operation Jupiter, the impending invasion of Norway, is being planned, but it is feared that there is a German spy amongst the Norwegians.
 
Billy doubts his own abilities, with good reason. A theft and two murders test his investigative powers, but Billy proves to be a better detective than he or anyone else expected.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 522 KB
  • Print Length: 401 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1569479704
  • Publisher: Soho Press (1 Sep 2007)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B004HYHAGM
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #194,138 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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James R. Benn
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A Big Disappointment! 11 Jun 2010
By bobbewig TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
I was very much expecting to enjoy this book based on its seemingly interesting premise -- i.e., that of a young Boston Irish cop who finds himself in the thick of wartime intrique when he becomes General Eisenhower's personal investigator. Unfortunately, Billy Boyle was a big dissapointment to me. The plot was very slow-moving, the characters were somewhat stereotypical, the mystery was not very mysterious and the excitement level was tepid at best. The biggest mystery to me about this book is why I bothered to finish it. Do yourself a favor and don't be misled by the mostly favorable reviews about Billy Boyle on this site.
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By Blue in Washington TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
This review is for the new SOHO Crime version of "Billy Boyle: A World War ll Mystery". It's the first book in a series introduced in 2006 and has been followed by several other titles. I'm a big fan of the Detective Freddie Troy series by John Lawton and the cover of "Billy Boyle" suggested the same kind of story and writing.

Unfortunately, Billy Boyle is no Freddie Troy. And the difference is mostly in the substance and depth of the writing and the characters. Author James Benn labors mightily to evoke 1940s America and England in "Billy Boyle", but the overall feeling of the book comes off as "gee whiz--innocence abroad." The stressed-out environment of wartime London (mid-1942) isn't established in any credible way. The protagonist--Billy Boyle--is a young Boston cop assigned to vague investigatory duties with the London staff of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. He brings dubious skills to his assignment: he cheated on a test to become a police detective; has never done any detective work; has little or no knowledge of the world outside his neighborhood; and often lacks common sense. On the plus side, he is Ike's nephew by marriage; is young, relatively fearless and brash. His first assignment as investigator is to ferret out a Nazi spy who has infiltrated the Norwegian Government in exile. An invasion of Norway by Allied forces is at risk, as Billy Boyle (a lowly second lieutenant) begins to rub shoulders with high ranking military and civilian officials, including the King of Norway.

Eventually, the storyline does pick up some steam and has a decent ending. But it never does achieve much credibility in its characters nor does it really manage to evoke the time and place. Billy Boyle has as much gravitas as a Hardy Boy and the rest of the character cast is cliche-ridden and often indistinguishable--one from the other. A lot of false notes here, especially when the author introduces moments of cultural clash.

One optimistic note--reviews of books further along in the series suggest that the character of Billy Boyle does mature and broaden as the war goes on. Author Benn's writing, while not especially complex and often way too "one-character narrative", isn't always uninteresting. I would give one of the later books a shot. I would recommend, however, giving this first one a pass.
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Format:Paperback
Written in an easy, flowing style, James Benn has penned another of the entertaining WWII novels, albeit with a Boston cop flair. I won't repeat the storyline in this review, but suffice to say that Benn carries the reader along with constant interest, chronologically correct observations, and syntax designed to confuse the Brits among us. As Kaz and Daphne struggle to understand Billy's street lingo, the reader is made aware of the differences that exist in the English language, as well as the varied emotional responses that also separate Americans from their British counterparts.

A well written and entertaining story. Having lived in both England, (and Ireland) as well as Norway, the story was of personal interest. I will certainly follow the series through its several iterations.

Gordon Ryan, Author
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