The Devouring

Starred review from July 3, 2017
Switzerland provides the setting for Benn’s suspenseful 12th whodunit featuring U.S. Army investigator Billy Boyle (after 2016’s Blue Madonna). Billy and his colleague and friend Piotr “Kaz” Kazimierz, a lieutenant in the Polish Army in exile, are supposed to be flown from England into occupied France and dropped near the Swiss border, but the mission goes awry after their plane is shot down by the Germans, killing the pilot. Billy and Kaz manage to make it into Switzerland, with the assistance of a member of the Sinti ethnic group bent on revenge against the Nazis. Once they reach Geneva, their contact, Maureen Conaty, explains that they are to help with Operation Safehaven, an OSS effort to identify hidden German funds so that the U.S. treasury can “negotiate with neutral governments to keep the money out of the hands of the Nazis and use it to rebuild Europe after the war.” The pair is soon investigating a murder, and Benn does his usual excellent job of incorporating historical background into a fast-paced plot, which barely slows down on the way to the satisfactory resolution.

July 15, 2017
A doughboy detective hunting for hidden Nazi gold solves a murder puzzle in the process.Using the Rhone River as a landmark, Capt. Billy Boyle (Blue Madonna, 2016, etc.) and his sidekick, Piotr "Kaz" Kazimierz, make an emergency landing in occupied France after their plane is hit by enemy fire. With German troops nearby, they make a run for it toward Switzerland. They're rescued by Anton Lasho, a Sinti who, after suffering the loss of his entire family at the hands of the occupiers, has become a one-man resistance, killing Nazis left and right. The pair find refuge in an abbey, where they learn the details of Lasho's sad history. Their contact in Switzerland, bristly Maureen Conaty, is openly disdainful of Lasho, whom she deems a distraction for the resistance, but Billy and Kaz effectively advocate for him. With fake credentials, they hunker down in Switzerland to search of the Nazi gold that's laundered there, a sum likely in the hundreds of millions. In Bern, where a direct delivery from the German Reichsbank is expected soon, an international collection of Allies assembles to assist them. Victor Hyde from the American Embassy and his good friend Henri Moret join Billy and Kaz to watch the convoy of Mercedes Benz trucks parade by, with Lasho and Conaty not far away. But before an effective heist can be implemented, one of these four new colleagues is murdered. Benn's 12th World War II mystery keeps the action coming, with a nifty whodunit chaser.

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July 1, 2017
When we last saw Billy Boyle, special investigator assigned to General Eisenhower's staff, he was in Normandy on the day before D-Day (Blue Madonna, 2016). For fans hoping Billy's next case would find him accompanying the Allies as they fought their way through the hedgerows, no such luck. Billy and his fellow investigator, Kaz, are in Bern, at first investigating the murder of a Swiss banker with ties to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), but then helping OSS chief Allen Dulles launch Operation Safehaven, designed to contain and control the riches stolen by the Nazis from the citizens of the occupied countries and then deposited in Switzerland. This subject, while thoroughly appalling (much of the Nazis' looted wealth came from gold fillings harvested from the teeth of gassed Jews), does not lend itself to a wartime thriller plot quite as easily as have the historical frames used in previous series entries. Still, Benn molds an entertaining story out of Billy and his cohorts' encounters with odious Swiss bankers and a cadre of Gestapo agents stationed in Bern to protect the loot. Great history here, but next time we'd like to see Billy back in action.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2017

In this 12th series entry, Billy Boyle and friend Kaz are sent to neutral Switzerland to investigate the murder of a banking official with ties to the OSS. But our heroes are shot down over France before reaching Switzerland. With the assistance of Anton Lasho, a member of the Sinti (Romany) ethnic group, out to avenge the slaughter of his family by the Nazis, they make it over the border and find that Swiss banks are openly laundering gold stolen from concentration camp victims. Extensive historical and military contextual detail, copious suspense, plenty of action, and the innate politics of power are distinctive traits of this acclaimed World War II-set series. VERDICT The theme of Swiss complicity with the Nazis and their profiteering is absorbing and should appeal to historical fiction fans, mystery readers, and military buffs. Read-alikes include Martin Limon's fast-paced "Sueno and Bascom" military mysteries, and J. Robert Janes's "St-Cyr and Kohler" series set in occupied France.--ACT

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2017

In the next in this World War II-set series, Irish American cop Billy Boyle is sent to Switzerland with buddy Kaz to investigate the murder of a Swiss banking official linked to the Office of Strategic Services. Their work is complicated by evidence that Swiss bankers are laundering gold stolen by the Germans from Holocaust victims. From a Barry and Dilys Award nominee and IMPAC Dublin long-listed author.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.