Blood Alone: A Billy Boyle World War II Mystery
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Product Description
“Spirited wartime storytelling. Benn allows Boyle’s experiences to change him in ways both devious and dramatic.”—The New York Times Book Review
“A convincing blend of fact and fiction.”—Publishers Weekly
“Immediately engaging. . . . Superbly crafted and paced.”—BookPage, Mystery Pick of the Month
Billy awakens in a meadow hospital in Sicily with loss of memory. Despite this and copious attempts on his life, he manages to carry out his mission to enlist the cooperation of the head of the Sicilian Mafia on behalf of the Allies. He also foils a plot by Vito Genovese to counterfeit army scrip.
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In 1943 the Allied army invades Sicily. But, All-purpose Eisenhower’s Special Investigator Billy Boyle carries a special message, but not from his boss who is a distant relative. The ex- Boston police detective brings a note from American Mafiosi Don Lucky Luciano to the Sicilian Mafia asking them to not fight the American soldiers.
But Billy is wounded before he can deliver his message. As he struggles with loss of memory, less scrupulous individuals plot to take advantage of the battlefields. One particular felon needs Billy dead before his memories return; while Billy slowly puts together his past and his assignment building him marvel if he is a mob hit man.
The third Boyle WWII thriller is an exciting tale that brings to life Sicily in 1943 (see THE FIRST WAVE). As the allies invade the island, readers take a taste of the abject poverty alongside of mob rule. Although the loss of memory ploy is an over used technique, Billy is terrific as he struggles more with what type of person he is than with just who he is. James R. Benn provides another fascinating look at the madness and anarchy of war in the European Theater of Operation.
Harriet Klausner
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
An entertaining excellent read that throws some light on lesser known operations and battles of WWII. The action is quick and the real facts are not laid on too heavily.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
These Billy Boyle mysteries are a fantastic read. The leader incorporates factual WW II history right into each tale. It makes for a really enjoyable and educational foray into the recent past.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Billy Boyle wakes up wounded in a meadow hospital. He does not know his own name, his rank or to what army he belongs. A sergeant who says he wants to help Billy quickly turns up drowned in a tub and Billy is set up as the prime suspect.
So starts the third Billy Boyle WW II mystery. Billy’s memory soon returns, and he recalls who he is (Eisenhower’s “special investigator”) and what his mission was: To deliver a message from Lucky Luciano to the Sicilian mafia asking that they persuade Sicilian soldiers to stop fighting and desert. Billy also remembers that he and his people were ambushed in the hills, but he doesn’t know who did it. He resumes his mission and finds himself in a world of weird honor codes binding “men of respect” who are capable both of honor and of staggering violence. He also has to deal with American mafia thugs who are in the US Army but reflect only of a huge score, perhaps an Army payroll. Who can be trusted and to what degree?
Benn does a excellent job of portraying the Sicilian mafia culture, a combination of rapacity, violence, honor, resistance to all “foreign” power (including the Italians) and some sense of duty toward ordinary people, similar to the attitude of medieval barons. Benn also continues to improve his portrayal of the principal supporting characters.
Over the course of these books Billy has gone from an intelligent, but unsophisticated and very provincial kid who knows nothing beyond South Boston and his life as a young make the rounds cop, to a tough, resilient and duty driven soldier, a excellent investigator and a top class confidential operative. He has learned that his mandate decisions may cause casualties among his own people, and he knows that the mission is primary. He starts to know how intricate excellent and evil can be and of what his own honor consists.
Benn is also improving. In each book his tales are better and more believable and his main characters have more depth. If he continues to improve he may make it into the first rank of crime writers. As it is, his books are reliable as exciting entertainment.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
The 1943 invasion of Sicily is the setting for this latest Billy Boyd mystery (it is the third in the series). Billy, described as a nephew of Gen. Eisenhower and an investigator on his staff, is sent, the day before the invasion, on a mission to meet with the head of the Sicilian mafia to question him to influence Italian troops to abandon their posts to save American lives and ease their advance. He carries a silk handkerchief with the letter “L” (for Lucky Luciano) as an introduction. Really, Luciano did play a role and after the war received a pardon and was deported to his native Sicily.
Sorry to say, Billy encounters a mishap at the start: He suffers a concussion and bayonet wound resulting in a loss of memory. This sets the stage for a number of adventures. Among his problems is a plot engineered by Vito Genovese, once the head of one of the five major New York crime families.
All in all the novel is a well-engineered tale, with graphic descriptions of war as well as descriptions of the countryside. Written with a keen eye on details, the plot encompasses the best of a war tale as well as a mystery. Painstakingly enjoyable and recommended.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5