I HAVEN'T FALLEN IN THE WELL

“The Phantom Patrol” cover art

There’s a good reason for why there haven’t been any posts the last couple days.

I cannot tell a lie, I have been ambushed by a good book.

Thanks to Judith, who introduced me to the Billy Boyle World War II Mysteries, I found what as become my favorite mystery series. There’s solid World War II history on events even I wasn’t fully aware of. And the mysteries are superb.

One thing I really like is how Billy interacts with Actual People of the Time. In one, he meets Lady Mallowan - Agatha Christie - who helps him in figuring whodunnit. We find suddenly that we have been in a Poirot novel since opening the book to Page 1, complete with a denouement in the drawing room with all the suspects present, at which point the detective reveals the guilty party. Several of the other novels also use classic mystery formats. As I mentioned the World War II history is solidly first-rate.

So naturally, I went out and found a way to contact Jim, and we became friends. He read “Clean Sweep” and found an event in it that he put in the coming novel, “Phantom Patrol.”

Last week we decided we would each “blurb” the other for our coming books. I’m reading and blurbing “Phantom Patrol,” which comes in September, andI sent him “Turning the Tide: the USAAF in North Africa and Sicily,” which will be released on June 6.

Every time I get the newest novel in the series (this is #20), I think to myself, “This is the best yet!” It’s always true.

And “Phantom Patrol” - which arrived Sunday in my email and which I have not been able to tear myself away from since I opened the PDF - really is the best yet.

It’s December 1944. Billy and Kaz are tracking down a particularly vicious gang of American, British, French and German deserters, who have moved into high-end art theft in Paris. This is set against the gathering storm of what will be the Battle of the Bulge, in which they become involved.

They’re investigating with a young CID Sergeant, J.D. Salinger (who really did that during the war), and at the end of the last chapter are now headed toward the oncoming Malmedy Massacre in a jeep with Major David Niven, deputy intelligence officer of the British 21st Army Group (yes, he really did that).

So you see, current events just cannot hold a candle to the best of the Billy Boyle World War II mysteries.

If you’re not reading these yourselves, you should be. You need to read them in order, because later books reference people and events from earlier books.

They’re the best!

Thanks ever so much, Judith!!

We will return to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

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