Friday, August 5, 2022

Deadly card game

Imagine a serial killer in Europe during World War II, when serial killing was the order of the day. This is what James R. Benn does with exceptional skill in his 2011 Billy Boyle mystery A Mortal Terror.

Boyle was a rookie cop before the war. Now he's an Army lieutenant supposedly given a cushy and safe post as an aide to his Uncle Ike, none other than Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. But because of Boyle's police background, however limited, Ike assigns him to investigate wartime murders. This time his assignment takes him to Anzio in Italy where the fighting is fierce and Boyle is anything but safe, either from the Germans or the Red Heart Killer.

An unknown American soldier is killing officers and leaving a playing card at the scene — a ten of hearts for a lieutenant and jack of hearts for a captain. Can Boyle stop him before the killer achieves a royal flush?

Complicating the situation is that Boyle's younger brother, Danny, has been sent to Anzio as an infantryman. Boyle's priorities become confused, find the killer or protect his brother? Eventually these priorities become welded together when the killer sees Danny as an insurance policy against his older brother.

This is exciting stuff, with plenty of combat interrupting the investigation. Readers may also enjoy the special guest appearances by such historical personages as Kim Philby and Audie Murphy.

1 comment:

  1. Kim Philby ended John le Carré's MI6 career. Later le Carré came across Bill Fairclough. If only he had read Fairclough's epic #spy novel #BeyondEnkription in #TheBurlingtonFiles series. After all, Bill's MI6 handler knew Kim Philby + Oleg Gordievsky.

    ReplyDelete