The First Wave

In Benn's first novel, BILLY BOYLE, we met a carefree young soldier with a good heart but a tendency to look for the easy way. My husband and I both enjoyed the book very much, for the history and the likeable Billy. In the second book, THE FIRST WAVE, Billy has seen things that cause him to grow up, in the same way that I picture my own father must have done when sent overseas in 1943. The mystery is clearer and the characters better drawn in this book, so I liked it even better than the first one. I like Benn's writing style and the interesting tidbits the reader picks up about army life in WWII. I plan to order the third book as soon as I finish this review, and I recommend Benn's books to historical mystery buffs everywhere.

Sequel to the Dilys Award-nominated "Billy Boyle", The First Wave: A Billy Boyle World War II Mystery is a hard-boiled historical mystery novel. Set in 1942 Algeria, when the Allies are on the brink of liberating the nation from the grip of the Vichy French regime, Irish-American ex-cop and personal investigator of General Dwight D. Eisenhower Billy Boyle arrives with the first wave of American troops to land on the Beer Green invasion beach. Amid the fog of war, Boyle must solve a series of murders among American and French forces, and rescue a woman he has come to love from the renegade Vichy collaborators who have kidnapped her! Told in gritty first person, The First Wave is an action-packed yet soulful adventure, enthusiastically recommended for fans of the genre in general and Benn's previous work in particular.

Crime A Brave Heart NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW By MARILYN STASIO Published: September 9, 2007 In his first novel about Billy Boyle, James R. Benn labored a bit too strenuously to draw a picture of a young soldier-sleuth who epitomized everything decent and admirable about World War II America. Benn's hero is still wide-eyed and bushy-tailed in THE FIRST WAVE (Soho, $24), but his character has deepened, as have his thoughts. Now he earns respect for the good he does, rather than what he stands for. "War sure is educational," marvels this Irish cop from South Boston, who thought he was getting a cushy patronage job when Uncle Ike (a distant relative better known as the commander of United States forces in Europe) claimed the "rosy-cheeked youth" as his personal private investigator. Instead, the kid saw plenty of action on the European front and learned enough about undercover police work to pass what even his uncle had to admit was a tough initiation. "The First Wave" finds Boyle coming ashore in the 1942 Allied landing in French North Africa. He's on a dangerous, if vague, mission to rally support from officers in the Vichy government forces in Algiers and to free a group of French resistance fighters, his English girlfriend among them. A better cop than secret agent, Boyle also gets wind of a smuggling ring that's depriving soldiers of the new miracle drug, penicillin, and during the course of his investigation discovers that even in the middle of a war a combat hospital offers no refuge from noncombat crimes like drug trafficking, high-stakes gambling, rape and murder. In granting Boyle a measure of maturity, Benn takes care not to put a muzzle on him. The brash kid from Southie is still open, direct and fearless in his manner (and in his wonderfully loose-jointed use of the English language) and in no danger of losing his cover as a "happy-go-lucky Yank." But even amid the excitement of the spirited wartime storytelling, Benn allows Boyle's experiences to change him in ways both subtle and dramatic. Becoming sensitized to the status of female officers -- paid half the salary of men, unable to issue an order to the lowliest private and denied the dignity of a salute -- is one of those subtle ways. Seeing himself from the perspective of a people whose country his own has invaded is a more striking leap for Boyle, as is his new willingness to judge foreigners by their own standards. In one painful moment of introspection, he even questions his family's rigid beliefs. Where he comes from, that's real bravery.

No "sophomore slump" here - James R. Benn's second Billy Boyle WWII mystery is even better than his first. The characters are interesting, the plot intriguing, and the well-researched historical details lend a feeling of authenticity.

Now a combat-seasoned soldier, James R. Benn's Lt. Billy Boyle returns, in The First Wave, this time riding in a landing craft off the coast of Algeria. Stronger and braver than he thought, he's still "Mrs. Boyle's number one son," straight from South Boston, and still wondering how a nice Irish kid from Boston like him got in such a situation. And the situation is dangerous: he and his boss are on their way to rendezvous with a group of French soldiers, to assist them in undermining their Vichy leadership. That mission is scrubbed, though, when they are intercepted by Vichy militia. After a brief incarceration, Billy and his boss are first detailed to collect information on enemy troop dispositions, and then to investigate a murder that seems to be connected with the theft and black marketing of precious medical supplies, including the newly developed "miracle drug," penicillin. At the same time, though, Billy discovers that his sweetheart, a Special Operations agent, has been taken prisoner, and his immediate impulse is to find her. The plot is complex and multi-layered: it's November of 1942, and war threatens the world, made even more complicated by the political realities of North Africa and its population, and the Axis. Then there's Billy's immediate mission, to solve the murder of a supply sergeant and attendant theft of medical supplies. And finally there's his own personal mission, to rescue his love and revenge the cruel treatment she's received. But the moral universe is skewed here by war, and its imperative makes Billy's zeal for revenge a matter of self-indulgence; his "Uncle Ike," General Eisenhower in a cameo appearance, directs him to "leave things alone." (The book also chronicles the Army's shabby treatment of military nurses in World War II; it's all part and parcel of that irrational universe.) The book is rich with detail, both natural and military. Sand is everywhere, from the shifting sands of the landing zone to the fine sand that's driven by the wind into the folds and crevices of Billy's clothes, even into the orders he carries. Gun emplacements contrast with rows of neatly planted grapevines, the stakes of which begin to look like grave markers, and the ripe smell of grapes is later replaced by the "scent of war," a mixture of salt and diesel fuel, cabbage and woodsmoke. Markets smell like spices and ripe fruit, while air raids explode in dirt and noise and steam and flames and burning rubber Billy tells his own tale, sometimes in the brassy voice of South Boston, sometimes in the tones of remembered fear, but always eloquently. His job in South Boston was to "put things right," he always thought, and it's what he wants to do here. But in war the stakes are higher and the job is harder. There are other losses besides life--you may lose love, and trust, and maybe "part of your soul," as Billy comes to learn. In the end, war makes him stronger than he was, though far crueler. He's able to com