James R. Benn
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James R. Benn

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Writing the Billy Boyle World War II mystery series (published by the terrific Soho Press) has given me much joy. I've gotten to meet people in person and online from all over the world and hear their reactions, feedback, and most importantly, their own stories. I also have two stand-alone books published by Open Road Media. On Desperate Ground is a WWII thriller in the grand tradition of Jack Higgins, and Souvenir is an exploration of memory, identity, sorrow and loss during the lifetime of a veteran of the Second World War. Shard is another stand-alone and a bit of a departure. It tells the story of the POW camps in North Korea. These POWs were the forgotten men of the forgotten war. I hope it helps to keep the truth of their experiences alive. My most recent stand-alone is Freegift, released in October 2022. It's set during the American Revolution and tells the story of a young man, formerly enslaved, as he struggles to find his place in the world as the war rages along Long Island Sound. The latest Billy Boyle novel, The Phantom Patrol, is the nineteenth in the series and already looks to be one of the most popular. My idea for a historical mystery series set within the Allied High Command during the Second World War began with the first title, Billy Boyle, which takes place in England and Norway in 1942. The second, The First Wave, carries on a few months later during the Allied invasion of French Northwest Africa. The third, Blood Alone continues the story through the Allied invasion of Sicily. In the fourth installment, Evil For Evil, Billy Boyle voyages to his native Ireland. The fifth book in the series deals with the infamous Katyn Massacre of Polish Officers by the Soviets, and how the uncovering of that crime affected the war, especially Polish-Americans and the Poles in exile in England. It is titled Rag and Bone (from the Yeats poem). Number six, titled A Mortal Terror, is set in southern Italy and within the Anzio Beachhead, where Billy tracks down the Red Heart Killer, who is targeting officers of increasingly senior rank. Mortal terror deals with combat fatigue and the terrible effects of prolonged exposure to the not only combat but the rigors of winter in the mountains. Death's Door (#7) takes Billy into occupied Rome, to investigate the murder of an American monsignor within the walls of the neutral Vatican City. In the 8th installment, A Blind Goddess, Billy is back in England prior to D-Day and working to clear a black GI of murder charges. The Rest is Silence (#9) was released on 9/2/14 and features the disaster surrounding Operation Tiger, a D-Day training event at Slapton Sands in southwest England that went terribly wrong. The tenth Billy Boyle novel, The White Ghost, takes him to distant waters in the South Pacific. Number 11, Blue Madonna, finds Billy Boyle behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day. Book #12, The Devouring, takes Billy and Kaz to the supposedly neutral nation of Switzerland, where they find the Gestapo, gold, and greed. The thirteenth novel, Solemn Graves (2018) and the next, When Hell Struck Twelve (2019), are set in Normandy and Paris as Allied forces sweep through France. The Red Horse (2020) brings Billy and company back to England for recuperation, interrupted by murder. In 2021's Road of Bones, they venture into the Soviet Union to investigate murder at a US airbase. I live on the Gulf Coast of Florida with my wife Deborah Mandel, a retired psychotherapist who currently works as a copyeditor and writer who offers many insights, a good critical read, and much else. I'm a graduate of the University of Connecticut and received my MLS degree from Southern Connecticut State University. I am a member of the Mystery Writers of America, and the Author's Guild. I worked in the library and information technology fields for over thirty-five years before retiring to work full-time. I've learned two valuable lessons since I started writing which have helped me greatly. The first is a quote from Oscar Wilde, who said "The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of one's pants to a chair." The second is from novelist Rachel Basch, who told me "the story has to move down, as well as forward." Both sound simple. Neither is.
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