This is the second book in the Billy Boyle series, which features a fresh faced recruit in World War 2, trying to solve mysteries. A fledgling detective back in Boston when he got drafted, Boyle was assigned to his uncle's staff. His uncle just happens to be General Eisenhower, or Uncle Ike as Billy likes to call him. Ike uses him as an investigative arm, trying to see if he really is a detective.

In this one, he lands with an advance party for Operation Torch, the first real action for the US Army, landing in French occupied Algiers. The hope was that the French would come over peacefully, and it sort of worked that way.

Of course, this being war, things get confusing. Billy finds himself in the middle of multiple murders in the field hospital, probably stemming from a black market in the new wonder drug, penicillin. Things also get complicated when he finds his love from the previous book, Diane, mixed up as an undercover spy(!), who gets kidnapped. He spends the rest of the book trying to get her back, while solving several mysteries.

To be honest, this book was a bit of a slog. I am a World War 2 history buff, especially when it comes to the North African Campaign, so I enjoyed the setting very much. But Boyle kind of got on my nerves. I can see how Benn is trying to make him more human by not making him an insufferable hero, but his whining for back lines and complaining about danger during nearly every chapter gets tiring after a while.

And, as much as I hate to say it, I like my private detectives to not have a steady dame. I always thought the Spenser novels took a precipitous dive in quality once he got attached to Susan. And Boyle spends so much of this book pining for Diane, or worrying about her, or trying to protect her, that it takes away a great deal from the tension. Part of the reason why I like a good hardboiled detective novel is the interesting frissons between man and woman, and how the main character tries to deal with them. And Billy being in a doe eyed love, worrying about how to get her to like him better, just isn't all that interesting.

The plot also got quite convoluted. Maybe if I had read it a little more quickly, rather than a chapter a two at night, I might have followed it more closely. But there were all kinds of strands that, naturally, got pulled together in the end, but I'm not sure I followed them all completely.

So it was okay. Good enough for me to try the next one in the series, book:Blood Alone|3497252], but it is definitely on double secret probation.