Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The cover of this book is interesting.
The storyline is unique and isn't something I've read a lot of before.
There were definitely some twists I didn't see coming.
The characters were well-developed and easy to like / relate to.

BLAME THE DEAD is a wonderfully written mystery set in Worl War II. Being a lover of historical fiction and mysteries, This checked off a lot of boxes for me. I cannot wait to see how things go in the next book.

(See all my Book Reviews and Author Interviews) - Author Ed Ruggero (http://edruggero.com) published the novel “Blame the Dead” in 2020. This is his first novel, but he has published a few non-fiction books.

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence, Mature Language, and Mature Situations. The story is set in WWII Sicily. The Primary character is US Army First Lieutenant Eddie Harkins. He is a former Philadelphia beat cop who is now in the Military Police.

Harkins has most been dealing with minor issues - traffic, drunkenness, fighting. Suddenly he finds himself appointed as the investigator for a murder. After an air raid on the US Army’s 11th Field Hospital occurs, the body of a surgeon is found.

At this time in 1943, Sicily is a war zone. The hospital is relatively near the front lines. The hospital is dealing with heat, dirt, the threat of a German counterattack, and a flood of wounded GIs. There are many who don't like Harkins digging into their business. he is wondering if he is over his head with the investigation.

The only good thing about it is the chance it gives him to reacquaint with nurse Kathleen Donnelly. Donnelly is a childhood friend from his neighborhood in Philadelphia. She may be growing into more than an old friend!

The obstacles everyone is throwing at Harkins gives him little hope. The hospital staff seems to have many secrets. When he and those closest to him become targets, Harkins resolves to find the killer.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 8.5+ hours I spent reading this 330-page WWII mystery. I liked the Harkin character and the setting of the mystery. I think that the author has done a good job weaving details of WWII into his story. I look forward to reading further novels in this series. The cover art is OK but seems to have little connection to the story. I give this novel a 5 out of 5.

You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

During the chaos of an air raid Dr. Myers Stephenson is murdered while running towards shelter. MP Eddie Harkins is just finishing up a long shift when he gets waved into the field hospital just outside of Palermo, Italy. By chance, Eddie finds himself in charge of the investigation. When he begins asking questions of the hospital's staff he finds out that the place is in complete disarray. Doctors are drunk while on duty, nurses are being harassed and attacked, one even died recently under suspicious circumstances. Sensing he has fallen into a bigger mess than he can handle, Eddie is relieved to find that his brother, a chaplain paratrooper, as well as and a good friend from back home are both at the hospital and form a fast team to attempt to uncover what is really going on at the US Army's 111th Field Hospital. "Blame the Dead" is unlike any WWII historical fiction book I've red before. So many of these books are written from the female point of view and involve some sort of espionage on their part - this was a refreshing perspective. A whodunit mystery with a historical setting, "Blame the Dead" acts as a history lesson for those of us who aren't familiar with military protocol during the war, what life was like for the nurses working in the field as well as a glimpse into life in Italy during this time. Thank you to NetGalley & Tom Doherty Associates for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The chaos and confusion of the US Army's 11th Field Hospital in 1943 Sicily is the setting for a murder investigation in Ed Ruggero's "Blame the Dead".

Military Police lieutenant Eddie Harkins was a Philadelphia beat cop before he enlisted. First MP on the scene of the murder of a surgeon at the hospital, he ends up leading the investigation, despite his lack of experience.

Eddie is helped by a childhood friend working at the unit, nurse Kathleen Donnelly, and by his elder brother Patrick, a chaplain in the Eighty-Second Airborne Division.

It's an engrossing read as they uncover a dangerous spy, grand theft and rape, as well as multiple murders.

Eddie Harkins was a traffic cop in the United States before World War II began. When a surgeon is murdered at a hospital base in Sicily, he is brought to the base to investigate. He discovers many secrets and coverups that have been happening at the base, which makes his investigation complicated.

The writing in this story was clear and concise. I immediately felt sympathy for the characters. Harkins got some bad news fairly early on in the book, and I could feel his pain. The story was detailed, but also concise, so words weren’t wasted. The story was also fast paced, so it was difficult to put down.

There are some sexual assaults and rapes that Harkins uncovers in his investigation. One thing that I noticed right away was that the men in charge treated these accusations in the same way that they are often treated today. They either brushed them off as being a misunderstanding or blamed the women for leading them on or wanting to be touched like that. Unfortunately, that’s still often the response decades later. However, this made the story very timely, since there is more awareness about sexual assaults today.

I loved this book! I highly recommend it!

Thank you Forge Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting story. I do not normally read military type stories, but for some reason the blurb for this one intrigued me. The story takes place in Italy during WW2 not long after D-day. Eddie Harkins is an MP and is assigned to investigate the murder of a doctor at a military hospital. Turns out the good doctor was not so good, he liked sexually harassing the nurses, going so far as to rape at least one. As Harkins investigates, he finds that many staff at the hospital did not like the doctor as well. Though not a detective, Harkins does a good job of being tenacious in interviewing various people that had interactions with the doctor. I found the story moved along at a brisk pace, there was a sub plot involving a German POW who had been forced into spying for Germany with threats to his family if he refused. Some of the military speak was, for me, over my head though it did not detract from the story. The author included historical notes that were interesting. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the read.

Finally!! A book based in WWII that was different! I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

Eddie Harkins, military police, is the first person to arrive at what appears to be a murder. From there the author takes you on a journey to find out who killed the doctor that everyone hated. You have the nurses he terrorized, the German prisoners of war, and all the other people who worked in the hospital, as suspects. The authors description of the hospital and what it goes through during war very realistic. Such a different historical fiction novel. Solid 4⭐

Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan Tor-Forge for giving me the copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

This was a slow moving police procedural set at a US military field hospital in Italy during WWII. It reminded me a little of the books written by James R. Benn. A doctor at the hospital is found shot to death and Eddie Harkins, an MP, is assigned to find the killer. Everyone wanted the doctor dead so there were a lot of suspects. I found the investigation plodding, with much repetition. Then there was some action, including fighting and shooting, in the last 20% of the book. There was also a lot of talk about sexual harassment, rape, venereal disease and even an exploded penis. Most of this was unnecessary. I thought the book was just ok. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

"This may surprise you, Lieutenant, but we have a pretty important job here..."

“This may surprise you, Lieutenant, but we have a pretty important job here. I didn’t volunteer because I like the clothes, or because I wanted to see every s**thole in Europe.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this book about an Army mobile hospital unit based on Palermo, Sicily during World War II. The book begins in August 1943.

The story basically centers on the nurses that work at the hospital unit and there's a lot of historical happenings that I enjoyed reading about, in and around how the mobile units functioned.

This is also a mystery story and a story of intrigue. An Army doctor who was known for the horrendous way he treated the nurses is found murdered. One of the first people on the scene happens to be Army Lieutenant MP officer Eddie Harkins, who used to be a street cop in Philadelphia. He ends up investigating the murder rather than the Assistant Provost Marshal, who has even less investigative experience than him.

There's stories and sub-stories galore in the book and I enjoyed all the different characters and threads of plot.

I highly recommend this book if you enjoy historical fiction or murder mysteries.

I received this book from Forge Reads through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

This book is a well-written and interesting take on a unique aspect of WWII focusing on a murder at a field hospital and the basically untrained beat-cop-turned-detective trying time solve the case.
There’s a distracting amount of side stories & characters, so be prepared to focus. It’s vulgar and sad - not surprisingly - but worth picking up if you’re a WWII buff or a fan of police work or murder mysteries.

I was approached by publicist Alessandra Scarpaci via e-mail asking if I was interested in reviewing the historical mystery, Blame The Dead by Ed Ruggero. The promotional material emphasized Ruggero's military background as a West Point graduate and an army officer. It also mentioned women's issues and the role that women played in the military during WWII. I realized that I hadn't read any WWII novel by an author like Ruggero. I also had never read a mystery in which the setting was a field military hospital in wartime. So I requested a digital ARC which I received free of charge via Net Galley.

Last year, I had been taken aback by the WWII novel, The Light Over London by Julia Kelly, because I had been anticipating a novel primarily about gunnery girls in London. My review of Light Over London appeared on Flying High Reviews, my blog focusing on female protagonists, at the hyperlink I've provided. I discovered that the military content amounted to only about 10% of Kelly's book. With Ruggero at the helm, I didn't think I would need to readjust my expectations of Blame the Dead.

I saw a review on Goodreads that dismissed this novel because the protagonist was an ordinary member of the MP (military police). Given the author's knowledge of the military, I didn't think it likely that he'd made that kind of mistake. The reviewer pointed out that the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) would be investigating. So I hunted down the History of CID and discovered that in August of 1943, when Blame The Dead took place, criminal investigations in the U.S. Army were still the province of local MPs. Never accuse an author of inauthenticity unless you've done the research to support your claim. It was actually very easy to find the source I linked dealing with the CID's history.

The women in Blame the Dead were nurses. I was delighted that not all of them were content to remain victims of physicians who abused their positions of power. The most notably strong female character was Nurse Kathleen Donnelly. She was determined, courageous and a quick thinker. She's just the sort of person you'd want with you in a crisis.

There were a number of people committing crimes at various levels of severity in Blame the Dead. Since the main reason why I read mysteries is to see justice done, I was disturbed that one offender got away with serious crimes. Some readers may consider this character sympathetic, but I couldn't deal with the injustice. This was my only significant problem with this book.


I felt that Blame the Dead realistically portrayed the period, and the military hospital context. It showed the impact of routine sexual harassment and assault on women. It also showed the impact of poor leadership, corruption and abuse of authority. The resolution was a bit too noir for me, but I thought it was well-written.

Who killed Dr Myers Stephenson? There's no question he was a loathsome man so there's a list of suspects that Eddie Hawkins, a Philadelphia police officer turned Military Police Lieutenant, must work through. Set at an Army hospital just outside Palermo, Italy in 1943, this offers up a different take on the historical WWII mystery. Ruggero addresses sexual abuse in the military directly as well as the social issues in the WWII military. Kathleen Donnelly, an old friend of Hawkins, is particularly well drawn and sympathetic. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of historical mysteries.

Ed Ruggero has written a taut and engrossing page turner of a historic thriller read with Blame the Dead.. Well worth the read!

Summer, 1943. A mobile field hospital just outside Palermo, Sicily. A doctor is shot in the head as he runs for cover. Military policeman Eddie Harkins is coming off a long shit of breaking up drunken brawls when he is waved over to the scene. He was only a beat cop back in Philly, but he is assigned to this case when a proper investigator can’t be found. It doesn’t take a lot of digging to find that this hospital is a mess. The nurses are abused by the doctors and the administration looks the other way. One nurse died a couple weeks before from allegedly choking on her own vomit. Harkins senses something deeper. A plot that may involve the black market or other illicit dealings. The suspects are many and he just has to keep moving, attacking this mystery from all sides.

Luckily he has several allies who help him in his first real investigation. His brother Patrick’s paratrooper unit is stationed close and the two are able to have several reunions over the course of the book. Patrick is also a priest, who tries to save one of his fellow soldiers by getting him assigned to be Eddie’s driver. Colianno becomes somewhat of a sidekick for Harkins as he has a definite feel for the locals being that his parents both grew up in Sicily. He knows the language and can grease the wheels for Harkins, who can blunder around when trying to communicate. But the most pressing ally is Lt Kathleen Donnelly, a nurse at the hospital who also happens to be an old friend from the neighborhood. She is both a resource in trying to get the nurses’ side of the story and a romantic interest for Harkins. A way to rid themselves temporarily of the loneliness of the war.

This book is a history lesson, a page-turning mystery, and a piece of human drama all wrapped up in one. Stuck in a war zone yet trying to do the right thing, Harkins is a man who will run and run to connect the dots to the murderer. He has a good sense of who the ultimate villain is early on in the book, but the evidence alludes him. This is a plus in the reading. It made the book go quickly as the hunt became more palpable as the threads started to become well intertwined. My only criticism is that the ending is stretched out a little more than my liking.

Well-researched and with a good feeling of the emotions of war for all participants, Blame the Dead is thriller that I would definitely recommend.

4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor/Forge Books, and the author for an advanced copy of the book.

"Blame the Dead" is a must-read for fans of WW2 fiction, crime dramas and mysteries. Ruggero's fast-paced tale concerns the under-appreciated nurses caring for GI's at a mobile field hospital near Palermo, Sicily during 1943, and Eddie Harkins, a Philadelphia beat cop/Military policeman who finds himself dealing with his first murder investigation. Ruggero's complicated characters and believable interactions grab your attention from the first page, DO NOT start this book without having the time to read it, as you won't be able to put it down!

This book I find very well written, since the first page you can dive deep into the storyline. This books has as a theme the world war, so it's not an easy theme to write and handle. But the author managed to do a good job on that. The book is not only full of tension, it also contains harder content and historical information. This mix of genresmake the story good. also liked the cover, it's very well designed and fits the setting. The writing style is very good and very pleasant and fluently to read. The book has been very clearly structured and the plot is traceable and very interesting. The characters  look very authentic too. The author succeeds in writing very detailing about the scenery, characters, surroundings and emotions. This story is fascinating and consistent at the same time and keeps the tension until the end.