BOOK REVIEW: THE PHANTOM PATROL

Last year, Judith here told me about a series of World War II mystery novels, “The Billy Boyle World War II Mysteries,” by James Benn. I checked out the first two and liked them so much that over the next four months I read all 18 that had been published to date. Not only that, I tracked down the author and we have become friends.

This past spring, he asked me to read an advance copy of Book #19, “The Phantom Patrol,” to give it a blurb. In return, he read my book, “Turning The Tide,” which came out yesterday (and is selling so well that the price is already down to $28 from a MSRP of $32).

“The Phantom Patrol” comes out on September 24, and is available now for pre-order. Jim asked me to put up a pre-release review, so here it is.

Ex-Former Boston PD homicide detective Captain Billy Boyle and his investigating partner and best friend, Lieutenant Baron Piotr “Kaz” Kazimierz of the Polish Army - who work in the Office of Special Investigations at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) for Billy’s “Uncle Ike,” General Dwight D. Eisenhower, where their assignment is to solve low crimes in high places that cannot be made public for their possible damage to the Allied war effort - are back in liberated Paris; it looks like the winter of 1944-45 just might be see the end of the war, but ominous events are afoot. They are on the hunt for a gang of Allied and German deserters operating in Paris who have turned to art theft in the wake of the rescue of great art once looted by the Nazis.

The series often has Billy and Kaz interacting with actual historical personages, and this continues here in “Phantom Patrol.” The two of them are working closely on the case with Sergeant J.D. Salinger (yes, that J.D. Salinger) of the Counterintelligence Corps, the first to realize that rescued artworks are still in danger. The three of them receive guidance from famed French art theft expert Rose Valland (of “Monuments Men”) on the stolen artworks. Billy also runs into Ernest Hemingway - who he has had run-ins with before - who is now covering the war for “Colliers” Magazine and wants to break the story of the thefts before Billy is ready to grab the main perpetrators.

When Billy finds a rare piece of artwork after a tense shoot-out in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, he thinks it could be connected to the Syndicat du Renard, a shadowy network of former Vichy-French Nazi sympathizers known to be smuggling stolen artwork out of France. Trailing the Syndicat, Billy discovers that someone with a high level of communications clearance - someone in the “Phantom Regiment” of the British Army - may be using his position to aid the thieves.

Determined to catch the abettor, Billy and Kaz head up to the frontlines to see what the situation is with the special reconnaissance unit known as the Phantom Regiment. At British 21st Army HQ, Billy meets Major David Niven (yes, that David Niven), senior intelligence officer on Field Marshal Montgomery’s staff, who agrees to take them to the Phantom Regiment in his M3A1 scout car, outfitted with a mounted machine gun and a good supply of brandy. It’s an all-terrain vehicle they’re glad to have when they run head-on into the opening moves of the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest. They barely miss becoming fellow victims in the Malmedy Massacre.

At the front, Billy and Kaz uncover a Nazi plot with the potential to determine the outcome of the war.

I’d love to tell you more, but then I’d ruin this for you.

The book is a real page-turner as our heroes keep jumping from ever more dangerous frying pans into ever bigger fires.

The entire series is excellent. There isn’t a bad story in the bunch. I particularly liked “The Rest Is Silence,” in which Billy interacts with Lady Malloway - Agatha Christie - and the reader suddenly discovers they are in the midst of a very well-done “Poirot mystery,” complete with the denouement in the drawing room with the suspects gathered for the detective to reveal the murderer.

One thing: this is a series best read in order, since Billy and Kaz develop as characters over time from their experiences. There are several opponents from earlier stories who make appearances in later ones.

As I wrote in my blurb: “This fast-paced thriller will keep you turning the page to the end. As a World War II historian, I love the accurate history in these books. As a lover of well-done mysteries, I can’t get enough of this series. You can’t go wrong hanging out with Captain Billy Boyle and Lieutenant Baron Kazimierz.”

And here’s Jim’s blurb for “Turning the Tide”: “Cleaver masterfully weaves personal stories of pilots into the larger fabric of the war, creating a narrative that puts the reader into the cockpit as well as the history books.”

Thanks again to the paid subscribers who make this possible. It;’s only $7/month or $70/year.

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