Publisher's Weekly Review of "The First Wave"

[James R. Benn]

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 mystery (after 2006’s Billy Boyle), tough, earthy Boston cop turned army lieutenant Boyle hunkers down in a landing craft during the gripping first-wave attack to liberate Algeria in 1942. Once ashore, Boyle sets out on an intelligence mission to sort out the power struggle among Vichy French traitors, free French forces and German occupiers. Boyle is soon taken into custody and catches a glimpse of his ex-girlfriend Diana, a British spy on a similar mission. He returns to friendly territory in time to find that a sergeant’s throat has been cut and vital morphine and penicillin supplies stolen. The enormous multinational cast makes it hard to determine a likely suspect, especially once Boyle uncovers a drug-smuggling network, American officers running poker parties and further murders of enlisted men, all somehow tied to a secret coded notebook. Historical figures like Adm. Jean Darlan give this lively story a bit of period flair."

- Publisher's Weekly, July 23, 2007.