From the Shadows

James R. Benn

ISBN: 9781641292986

Published: September 2022

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Hardcover $27.95

eBook $14.99

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James R. Benn

Hadlyme, Connecticut

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Description

In southern France in 1944, Captain Billy Boyle works with French Resistance fighters to protect a Royal Navy Commander, uncovering a wide web of subterfuge and betrayal in the process.

Following their mission in the Soviet Union, Billy, Kaz, and Big Mike are sent to southern France for what should be a simple assignme...

In southern France in 1944, Captain Billy Boyle works with French Resistance fighters to protect a Royal Navy Commander, uncovering a wide web of subterfuge and betrayal in the process.

Following their mission in the Soviet Union, Billy, Kaz, and Big Mike are sent to southern France for what should be a simple assignment: to serve as security for Royal Navy Commander Gordon Stewart, head of the Special Operations Executive’s Section F in Algiers. Stewart’s mission is to work with Resistance leaders in liberated areas to gather information that will help track down Vichy officials and other traitors who escaped with the retreating Germans. Stewart has received multiple death threats, and there has already been one attempt on his life in Algiers.

Over the course of his investigation, Billy learns that Stewart has many enemies in both the SOE and the Resistance, linked to a fatal Resistance uprising. Diana Seaton, Billy’s wartime lover, crosses paths with him as she and legendary SOE agent Christine Granville embark on a humanitarian mission on behalf of those killed while helping the SOE.

The race to find an important witness leads Billy to the legendary 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a unit made up of Nisei soldiers that went on to become the most highly decorated unit in the history of the US Army.

With sacrifice and betrayal afoot, Billy doesn’t know who he can trust, or how close to death this case may bring him.

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“Benn has made superb use of little-known episodes of military history. This time he ups the ante, combining several of those episodes—and a host of real-life characters—into a story that displays both the bureaucratic bungling of the Allied armies and the astounding heroism of individual soldiers and resistance fighters . . . a shocking tale of wartime perfidy.”
Booklist, Starred Review
“A solid mystery tucked into a colorful thriller dramatizing war’s complexity and devastation . . . the books in Benn’s long-running series have evolved from straightforward whodunits with a wartime background into ambitious, atmospheric thrillers, broader both in scope and literary finesse.”
Kirkus Reviews