� Benn follows up his first World War II mystery ( Billy Boyle ) with another danger-filled episode and delivers a cross-genre tale that is at once spy story, soldier story, and hard-Boyled detective.�� Library Journal (starred review)
�The period details are spot-on and Billy . . . continues to make a thoroughly engaging detective.�� The Denver Post
�Part Indiana Jones derring-do and part grown-up adventure novel with spies, black marketers, loyal and dastardly French, and the reliably evil Nazis. If you like World War II historical crime novels, you�ll love this one.�� Mystery Scene
� The First Wave is first rate.�� I Love a Mystery newsletter
�A �rattling good� read.��Rhys Bowen
�A solid follow up to Benn�s first novel. . . . [I] look forward to his next.��Robert B. Parker
�What a great read, full of action, humor and heart. . . . Equal parts spy thriller, war story and murder mystery, with a dollop of romance that�s never sweet, this is just a terrific book. More please!��Louise Penny
�Certain to appeal to WWII fiction fans.�� Booklist
Billy�s task is to help arrange the surrender of the Vichy French forces in Algeria. But dissension among the regular army, the militia, and DeGaulle�s Free French allows blackmarketeers in league with the enemy to divert medical supplies to the Casbah, leading to multiple murders. Billy must find the killers while trying to rescue the girl he loves�a British spy.
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From Publishers Weekly In Benn's high-spirited second WWII mystery (after 2006's Billy Boyle ), tough, earthy Boston cop turned army lieutenant Boyle hunkers down in a landing craft during the gripping first-wave attack to liberate Algeria in 1942. Once ashore, Boyle sets out on an intelligence mission to sort out the power struggle among Vichy French traitors, free French forces and German occupiers. Boyle is soon taken into custody and catches a glimpse of his ex-girlfriend Diana, a British spy on a similar mission. He returns to friendly territory in time to find that a sergeant's throat has been cut and vital morphine and penicillin supplies stolen. The enormous multinational cast makes it hard to determine a likely suspect, especially once Boyle uncovers a drug-smuggling network, American officers running poker parties and further murders of enlisted men, all somehow tied to a secret coded notebook. Historical figures like Adm. Jean Darlan give this lively story a bit of period flair. (Sept.)
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From Booklist Like Mark Frost in The Second Objective (2007), Benn builds his Billy Boyle series around little-known snippets of World War II history: Billy Boyle (2006) concerned a proposed Allied invasion of Norway, and this time the focus is on Eisenhower's plan to invade Vichy-held Algeria, anticipating a quick surrender by the French. It doesn't happen quite like that, and along the way, Boyle, a special investigator with Eisenhower's staff, finds himself trying to solve a series of murders connected to black marketeers and working to rescue the captured British spy with whom he fell in love in the first book. The unusual premises are the best part of this series and will be certain to appeal to WWII fiction fans, though Benn continues to struggle with the nuts and bolts of character development and plotting. The identity of the Allied traitor is obvious early on, and the interpersonal relationships still fall prey to the kind of melodrama associated with WWII tearjerkers. Still, Benn is improving from book to book, and as his storytelling skills inch closer to his feel for the historical moment, this series could come into its own. Ott, Bill
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