About this item
"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.
About the Author
Writing the Billy Boyle World War II mystery series (published by the wonderful folks at Soho Press) has given me much joy. I've gotten to meet people in person and online from all over the world and hear their reactions, feedback, and most importantly, their own stories. My latest book, SHARD, is a stand-alone and a bit of a departure. It tells the story of what went on in the POW camps in North Korea during that "forgotten war". These POWs were the forgotten men of the forgotten war. I hope readers find it of interest, and it helps to keep the truth of their experiences alive.I also have two stand-alone books published by Open Road Media. On Desperate Ground is a WWII thriller in the grand tradition of Jack Higgins, and Souvenir is an exploration of memory, identity, sorrow and loss during the lifetime of a veteran of the Second World War.The latest Billy Boyle novel, Road of Bones, is the sixteenth in the series and already looks to be one of the most popular.My idea for a historical mystery series set within the Allied High Command during the Second World War began with the first title, Billy Boyle, which takes place in England and Norway in 1942. The second, The First Wave, carries on a few months later during the Allied invasion of French Northwest Africa. The third, Blood Alone continues the story through the Allied invasion of Sicily. In the fourth installment, Evil For Evil, Billy Boyle voyages to his native Ireland. The fifth book in the series deals with the infamous Katyn Massacre of Polish Officers by the Soviets, and how the uncovering of that crime affected the war, especially Polish-Americans and the Poles in exile in England. It is titled Rag and Bone (from the Yeats poem) . Number six, titled A Mortal Terror, is set in southern Italy and within the Anzio Beachhead, where Billy tracks down the Red Heart Killer, who is targeting officers of increasingly senior rank. Mortal terror deals with combat fatigue and the terrible effects of prolonged exposure to the not only combat but the rigors of winter in the mountains.Death's Door (#7) takes Billy into occupied Rome, to investigate the murder of an American monsignor within the walls of the neutral Vatican City. In the 8th installment, A Blind Goddess, Billy is back in England prior to D-Day and working to clear a black GI of murder charges. The Rest is Silence (#9) was released on 9/2/14 and features the disaster surrounding Operation Tiger, a D-Day training event at Slapton Sands in southwest England that went terribly wrong. The tenth Billy Boyle novel, The White Ghost, takes him to distant waters in the South Pacific. Number 11, Blue Madonna, finds Billy Boyle behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day. Book #12, The Devouring, takes Billy and Kaz to the supposedly neutral nation of Switzerland, where they find the Gestapo, gold, and greed.The thirteenth novel, Solemn Graves (2018) and the next, When Hell Struck Twelve (2019) , are set in Normandy and Par
