The Billy Boyle World War II Mystery Series has the protagonist, a former Boston detective now serving as a lieutenant on the Eisenhower staff, undertaking special assignments for Uncle Ike (Billy’s mother and Mamie are sisters) requiring discretion. In this episode, he is sent to Northern Ireland where there is a large American base, part of the contingent preparing for the D-Day invasion.
Fifty Browning automatic rifles and a hundred thousand rounds of ammunition have been stolen, and the fears are that in the hands of the IRA, the Irish Republic to the south might be forced to come into the war on the Axis side if the weapons are used in an effort to “liberate” Ulster from the hated English. Billy, a Boston Irishman brought up to be a sympathizer against the English “oppressors,” arrives in an attempt to find the BARs, but quickly learns of other schemes and of the differences between Catholics and Protestants, the politics of the region, and the history of the Irish troubles.
The plot is complicated by many factors, as Billy stumbles along to solve two mysteries. While much of the novel is action-packed, and the mixture of wartime intrigue and Irish history may include a lot of fiction, the story is a fascinating look at a little known aspect of the Second Conflict involving the Nazi effort to use the Irish question to undermine England’s war effort. Had it succeeded, the war’s outcome might have been very different.
Recommended.
