A Mortal Terror

July 11, 2011
Historical background almost overpowers the personal foreground in Benn's ambitious sixth Billy Boyle WWII mystery (after 2010's Rag and Bone). As the U.S. Army fights its way up the Italian boot, Billy, a former Boston cop who's now a military investigator for his Uncle Ike (i.e., General Eisenhower), pursues a serial killer who's targeting Allied officers. Combat and the psycho steadily reduce the list of GI suspects. Billy realizes that the murderer is playing games with him after he discovers that his kid brother, Danny, is a new replacement somehow assigned to the platoon he's investigating. Unfortunately, as Billy realizes, looking for one particular killer during a war is difficult, especially in the bloody, chaotic Anzio beachhead. Benn tries hard to keep the focus on Billy's emotional crisis, but readers may find it easy to be distracted by the larger conflict.

Starred review from August 1, 2011

War has taken its toll on First Lt. Billy Boyle, and he's not alone in his misery. It's January 1944, and he's trying to figure out why he has been dispatched to Naples in his sixth outing (after Rag and Bone). If you're new to the series, Billy, a police detective back home, works for his Uncle Ike (yes, that Ike) as a military private investigator. Simply put, the general trusts Billy because he's family. In this captivating episode, a serial killer from the inside (dubbed the Red Heart Killer because he leaves playing cards on his victims) is targeting Allied officers, moving systematically up the ranks, and it's getting pretty tense in the officers' quarters. Billy is under the gun to find the madman before he runs out of cards. VERDICT Jump right in with this winner of a historical detective entry; don't worry if you haven't read all the others (I hadn't). Benn does a superb job of simultaneously capturing the personal anguish of war and creating a splendid adventure novel.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2011
Benn delivers another fine entry in his series starring Lieutenant Billy Boyle, a special investigator assigned to General Eisenhower's staff during WWII. Billy has spent the previous five books in the series shuttling around the European theater solving crimes that stand to get in the way of the Allied war effort. This time he is in Italy, where the Allies are gearing up for the battle of Anzio. From private to general, everyone knows this is going to be a rough one, which makes the presence of a serial killer inside the ranks all the more distracting, especially when it becomes clear that the killer has an eye for top brass. As in the past, Benn juggles between the investigation and the larger picture, bringing the two together even more closely here and complicating matters further with the presence at the front of Billy's kid brother, Danny, a recent enlistee. Solid wartime adventure, well grounded in historical detail, and boasting a challenging mystery to boot.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)