Check out My Photos for a selection of pictures taken at the September 5th Book Launch Party for BLOOD ALONE. Over eighty people attended and were treated to a slide show of Sicily photos, featuring the settings for Blood Alone. Also, my wife Debbie Mandel cooked up a storm and provided homemade Sicilian baked goods to help set the mood. Sicilian wine, Italian beer, good conversations and lots of books sold and signed - it was a great party! Photos courtesy of Mischa Lassow. Continue

Anyone in the neighborhood is invited to the Book Launch Party for BLOOD ALONE, the newest Billy Boyle WWII Mystery: Friday, September 5, 2008, 7:00 p.m. Lyme Public Library Route 156 (Hamburg Road) Lyme, Connecticut Book talk, refreshments (Siclian wine and baked goods), book sales & signing! Continue

I'm very happy to report that BLOOD ALONE is now the September Mystery of the Month in Bookpage, the book review magazine distributed to over 3,000 libraries and bookstores. Check out a copy! From the review: "Blood Alone is an intriguing blend of history and fiction, superbly crafted and paced, easily the best period mystery I’ve read in quite some time." And, BLOOD ALONE is an INDIE NEXT pick for October (Indie Next replaces Book Sense, the independent bookstore website). Continue

Early reviews are in for BLOOD ALONE, the third in the Billy Boyle mystery series. See what Kirkus and PW have had to say, along with a great blurb from Joe Finder: Another bracing cocktail of period action with a whodunit chaser from the increasingly authoritative Benn. —Kirkus Reviews Characterization and atmosphere carry Benn's third WWII mystery, a convincing blend of fact and fiction...a fine job of depicting a dusty, poverty-stricken Sicily, where warm loyalty is the reverse side of piti… Continue

I'll be attending my first Bouchercon in Baltimore, October 9 - 12, 2008. I'm very excited to finally make it to this storied gathering of mystery readers, writers, and assorted hangers-on. See you in the bar. Jim Continue

For Writer, ‘Uncle Ike’ Hits a Nerve

LYME

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In his first novel about Billy Boyle, James R. Benn labored a bit too

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The Book Launch Party for "The First Wave" will be 9/2/07, Lyme Public Library, Lyme, CT, at 3:00 p.m.
Since the series takes place during WWII, I thought it would be interesting to find some WWII Reenactors to attend, in combat and dress uniforms of the period. Turned out it was suprisingly easy to find them close by (the preferred term is Living Historian, but reenactor is also used and widely understood). We'll have two or three fellows from the 26th Infantry Division (Reenacted), otherw… Continue

Received a fine review in Publisher's Weekly! Interesting how often reviewers get the details wrong. Diana is not Billy's ex-girlfriend, for instance. I wonder how well they actually read the book. And I'm surprised at the degree to which they contradict each other; the Booklist review commented that the villain was easy to spot. In PW, the reviewer says the suspect was hard to determine! Oh well, it's an art, not a science.

"In Benn’s high-spirited second WWII my

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Exciting news coming in this week. THE FIRST WAVE has been selected as a Book Sense Notable title for September 2007. This followed a great starred review in Library Journal. Now, I have my first TV interview lined up, with an ABC affiliate in New Haven, CT. It's for a Saturday morning show, 7:15 a.m. (and I live an hour away). It ain't Ophra, but a writer's got to start somewhere! Will probably be September 1st; I'll confirm here when I know more.
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