In honor of Veteran’s Day, a showcase of Soho’s war fiction.
The Billy Boyle Series
by James R. Benn
Set during World War II
An Irish-American cop from Boston helps his “uncle” Ike Eisenhower in sensitive WWII investigations for the US Army in this spirited historical mystery series.
“Spirited wartime storytelling.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“A fast-paced saga set in a period when the fate of civilization still hangs in the balance.”
—The Wall Street Journal
James R. Benn is the author of the Billy Boyle World War II mysteries. The debut, Billy Boyle, was named one of five top mysteries of 2006 by Book Sense and was a Dilys Award nominee. A Blind Goddess was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and The Rest Is Silence was a Barry Award nominee. Benn, a former librarian, splits his time between the Gulf Coast of Florida and Connecticut with his wife Deborah Mandel.
The Sueno and Bascom series
by Martin Limón
Set during the Korean War
Sergeant George Sueño and his partner, Ernie Bascom, are stationed in Korea with the US 8th Army in the 1970s. They investigate crimes in which US Army personnel might have been involved. Meanwhile, George finds Korea and its culture fascinating, and does what he can to soften the bad opinion of Americans in Korea.
“Limón has a profound ability to depict everyday South Korean civilian life in a police state . . . He doesn’t just describe the clamor and sweat inside an ex-pat bar crowded with GIs. He drops you onto the bar stool and hands you a glass.”
—The Arizona Republic
“Action-filled.”
—The Wall Street Journal
Martin Limón retired from military service after twenty years in the US Army, including ten years in Korea. He is the author of eleven novels in the Sergeant George Sueño series: Jade Lady Burning, Slicky Boys, Buddha’s Money, The Door to Bitterness, The Wandering Ghost, GI Bones, Mr. Kill, The Joy Brigade, The Iron Sickle, The Ville Rat, Ping-Pong Heart, and The Nine-Tailed Fox, as well as the short story collection Nightmare Range. He lives near Seattle.
War Porn
by Roy Scranton
Set during the Iraq War
As War Porn cuts from America to Iraq and back again, as home and hell merge, we come to see America through the eyes of the occupied, even as we see Qasim become a prisoner of the occupation. Through the looking glass of War Porn, Scranton reveals the fragile humanity that connects Americans and Iraqis, torturers and the tortured, victors and their victims.
“One of the best and most disturbing war novels in years.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Forceful and unsettling.”
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Roy Scranton, military veteran, is the author of War Porn and Learning to Die in the Anthropocene, and co-editor of Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War. His journalism, essays, and fiction have been published in The Nation, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Boston Review, and elsewhere. He holds a PhD in English from Princeton and an MA from the New School for Social Research, and teaches in the Department of English at the University of Notre Dame.