EVIL FOR EVIL

Can a resourceful GI throw a wrench in the German war machine by cutting off its support of the IRA?

World War II soldier and sometime sleuth Billy Boyle (Blood Alone, 2008, etc.) is enjoying a brief respite in Jerusalem, on leave as part of General Eisenhower’s retinue. Even in the company of best girl Diana Seaton, it’s hard to relax while the war still rages. Diana, a British intelligence agent working as a liaison for Eisenhower, has failed to tell Billy that she’s leaving to go back to active espionage. When she does, their breakup is bitter, though of course they’ll meet again. It primes Billy to charge headlong into his next assignment: going to Ireland to track down a cache of Browning Automatic Rifles (BARs) believed stolen by the IRA. While England battles the Nazis, the IRA is bombing British cities. An Irish lad from the streets of Boston, Billy is loaded with opinions about his ancestors’ home. His preconceptions are challenged almost immediately, and he’s put on the defensive when the British soldiers he’s assigned to work beside sneeringly assume that he’s Catholic. One of his colleagues is killed by a sniper; best guess is that Billy was the intended target. Undeterred by a mounting death toll, Billy investigates the theft and the murders.

Deftly keeps our hero’s wide-eyed verve as he tackles a more complex plot that takes the series further from whodunit toward thriller.