James R . Benn has Captain Billy Boyle on vacation with his friends at the home of his lover Diane's father's estate when he is thrust into a strange murder investigation. 1944 England and an English officer is found dead in a submerged German warplane. Proud Sorrows has local scandals, British fascists, and war intrigues. Great historical mystery

Billy Boyle is an American captain in World War II. He's assigned to General Eisenhower's staff, where he utilizes the investigative skills he picked up as a Boston cop. He's finally got a leave and heads to the English countryside to meet with Julia, his girlfriend.

But the joyful reunion encounters some turbulence when a German bomber, that crashed in 1942 (the book takes place in 1944) is unearthed in the surf. A local man, who has donated his stately home to be used as a place to interrogate German prisoners, is found in the plane.

Billy and Julia and their circle of friends set out to find the murderer. But a second murder takes place. That's when things start getting interesting.

This book is part of a lengthy series featuring the same characters. It's clear to me why the series has been so successful. The characters are lively and engaging. The plot is good. I highly recommend this book and others in the series.

I think that this is the eighteenth book in the historical mystery series featuring Billy Boyle that began around 2006. Over the years, Billy has faced many difficult situations as WWII rages, and has met many historical personages along the way. Fans of the series will be eager to read this newest novel to catch up with Billy and those around him.

This time Billy is not in the war zone, but rather in Norfolk (location of Sandringham).. He is hoping for some much needed R&R, as he stays with his romantic partner’s (Diana) family. He is looking forward to being with Diana. But, of course, there would be no book if life were quiet and peaceful for Billy.

Indeed, much happens in these pages. There are many events. A German plane crashes. Why is an Englishman in it? There are POWs and top secrets There is murder. There is so much to sort out. Fans will trust that Billy will get the job done even if the English inspector may not want this American’s help..

This title is highly recommended to fans of WWII fiction and mystery. It is one of the best in the series. Those who are not already acquainted with Billy will undoubtedly be moving to the backlist.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Soho Press for this title. All opinions are my own.

3.5 stars

The latest installment of the excellent Billy Boyle WWII series. You would miss out on a lot if you hadn't read previous entries. We've been through the war with Billy and watched him mature and darken from his war experiences. But this story is set in England, where he and his love Diana are briefly reunited while on leave at her father's estate.

But naturally, nothing goes as planned and it's not long before a mystery and a murder crop up and Billy has to go back to work. There's an awful lot going on in this book, including Billy ruminating on what happens to him and Diana after the war. What chance do a British aristocrat and a Boston Irish cop have for a happily ever after? But it's wartime, and they are living in the moment for now.

Lots of plot elements: old animosities in Diana's family and in the village, a Great War vet who was never quite right after his time in the trenches, small town secrets and coverups, misbehaving nobles. I always learn something from a Billy story, and this time it was about the Ritchie Boys, American soldiers of German descent who were specially trained to interrogate and befriend German POWs.

The disappearance earlier in the war of a local man is solved in an odd fashion when an old German airplane wreck is uncovered and the missing man is found in the cockpit, just one of several puzzling events. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

First sentence (from the prologue): It began as a glow in the night sky, a faint flicker barely visible in the swirling, low clouds and the pelting rain. Stephen Elliot saw it as he shut the door behind him and made for his automobile.

Premise/plot: Billy Boyle, our soldier-detective protagonist, returns for his eighteenth mystery in Proud Sorrows. In this one, set in November 1944, Billy Boyle (and his friend, Kaz) are on leave and visiting the home/manor of his girlfriend, Diana Seaton. They are guests of her father, but not the only guests. Kaz's sister is a guest as well and recovering from her injuries gotten at a concentration/detainment camp. She was experimented on. (Also a guest, her full-time nurse, a long-time resident of the village.) Diana herself is home on leave at this time. It should make for a lovely holiday--even for war times. Surely the end is near--at least on the European front, right? But this holiday seems doomed...

It isn't too long before Billy Boyle is back hard at work on a case, drawn into a complex mystery involving several dead bodies. A BODY has been found--washed up in the Wash--in a German war plane. Not so mysterious until they realize--almost right away--that it is not the German pilot in the pilot's seat--but a long-missing resident of the village, Stephen Elliot of Marston Hall. HOW did his body get in the plane? What happened to the German pilot? Elliot's death was obviously murder--based on the evidence of his skull--but was the German pilot murdered too? WHICH of the village residents are suspect?

The case keeps getting more complex as he begins to question everything and everyone....there are MANY secrets in the village. Not all relate to the murders, of course, but all must be investigated to sort out WHO had the motive and opportunity to commit what might have been a near-perfect crime.

My thoughts: I loved this one. I ABSOLUTELY loved, loved, loved it. I loved the small ("quaint") British village. I love how the village was peopled--the characterization was marvelous. I love how substantive the mystery was. I love how it hinted at history. (The victim was researching King John and how he lost his treasure when attempting to cross the Wash). I love all the side characters that we've come to know throughout the book series--Kaz, of course, Big Mike, Diana, etc. But I also love all the villagers. (Well, most of them.) The book had a WONDERFUL quality to it. This presents a different element of the war mystery. This isn't so much front-lines and battle zones (as some have been) but more home-front and behind the scenes. This doesn't mean that Billy is safe and that there are no dangers....after all the village has at least one murderer....

Highly recommend the whole entire series.


First sentence (from the prologue): It began as a glow in the night sky, a faint flicker barely visible in the swirling, low clouds and the pelting rain. Stephen Elliot saw it as he shut the door behind him and made for his automobile.

Premise/plot: Billy Boyle, our soldier-detective protagonist, returns for his eighteenth mystery in Proud Sorrows. In this one, set in November 1944, Billy Boyle (and his friend, Kaz) are on leave and visiting the home/manor of his girlfriend, Diana Seaton. They are guests of her father, but not the only guests. Kaz's sister is a guest as well and recovering from her injuries gotten at a concentration/detainment camp. She was experimented on. (Also a guest, her full-time nurse, a long-time resident of the village.) Diana herself is home on leave at this time. It should make for a lovely holiday--even for war times. Surely the end is near--at least on the European front, right? But this holiday seems doomed...

It isn't too long before Billy Boyle is back hard at work on a case, drawn into a complex mystery involving several dead bodies. A BODY has been found--washed up in the Wash--in a German war plane. Not so mysterious until they realize--almost right away--that it is not the German pilot in the pilot's seat--but a long-missing resident of the village, Stephen Elliot of Marston Hall. HOW did his body get in the plane? What happened to the German pilot? Elliot's death was obviously murder--based on the evidence of his skull--but was the German pilot murdered too? WHICH of the village residents are suspect?

The case keeps getting more complex as he begins to question everything and everyone....there are MANY secrets in the village. Not all relate to the murders, of course, but all must be investigated to sort out WHO had the motive and opportunity to commit what might have been a near-perfect crime.

My thoughts: I loved this one. I ABSOLUTELY loved, loved, loved it. I loved the small ("quaint") British village. I love how the village was peopled--the characterization was marvelous. I love how substantive the mystery was. I love how it hinted at history. (The victim was researching King John and how he lost his treasure when attempting to cross the Wash). I love all the side characters that we've come to know throughout the book series--Kaz, of course, Big Mike, Diana, etc. But I also love all the villagers. (Well, most of them.) The book had a WONDERFUL quality to it. This presents a different element of the war mystery. This isn't so much front-lines and battle zones (as some have been) but more home-front and behind the scenes. This doesn't mean that Billy is safe and that there are no dangers....after all the village has at least one murderer....

Highly recommend the whole entire series.

Reading a book by the intelligent and thoughtful James Benn is always a pleasure. He’s kept the variety in this long lived series by alternating between tales of full on battle, and more village-y, traditional mysteries, as this one is. Set during WWII, Billy and his girl, Diana, are supposed to be on a much-needed leave, along with their friend Kaz and his sister Angelika, who is recovering from surgery on her leg. They are staying with Diana’s father in a village (King’s Lynn, also the setting for Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway novels) that houses a POW camp for high ranking Nazi officers.

The book opens with a plane crash in the past, and then circles back to it a few years in the future, when Billy and Diana discover the wreckage of a Nazi plane on the beach. The discovery is even more bizarre: how did the body of the missing Stephen Elliott, owner of the huge home where the Nazis are presently housed, end up in the plane? It’s a mystery Billy is removed from leave (much to his annoyance) to solve.

The detective work centers on the occupants of the village, including the dead man’s displaced sister, the vicar, Diana’s father, and various other locals who fill out a rich suspect pool. When a WWI vet is murdered the night of a bombing – right next to Billy, no less – Billy’s detective work takes on even more of an urgency. It’s also poignant, as the man suffered from shell shock and refused to sleep inside. He was a familiar wandering village figure.

“Proud Sorrows” is a wonderful title for this novel, which manages to avoid melancholy but still identifies the different burdens and sorrows war has imposed on everyone in the novel in different ways. Billy is sure his solution is tied to the pain felt by someone he’s encountered. He also comes into contact with a vein of Fascist sympathizers, an underground movement in sympathy with Hitler who feared that Britain would be overrun with foreigners at war’s end. It’s countered by the many veterans in the novel who have a total aversion to the Germans they come across, in any capacity.

Benn manages to construct what is basically a traditional village mystery and combine it with some of the thrilling suspense he’s also known for. Some of the clever detection scenes in the mansion where the Nazis are housed are traditional in the extreme (Sherlock Holmes is referenced), and the suspense and action scenes are just as well handled. There’s also a touch of British history – going back to King John as well as Shakespeare’s play about him – that give the book an even richer tapestry and deepen the mystery.

Benn’s hand with pacing is sure and his way with character is nothing short of brilliant. This is an incredible series, worthy of being savored. Start from the beginning! – Robin Agnew

It's 1944, and Captain Billy Boyle, former Boston policeman, finally gets a leave and goes to Seaton Hall in Norfolk, England, the home of his girlfriend Diana, who is also getting leave from SOE. Two years before a German plane crashed nearby, and then disappeared in the Wash. It has suddenly showed up on the beach. Marston Hall is being used to interview German prisoners, and the owner, who was a womanizer, disappeared at the time of the crash, and is found wearing his British uniform in the plane. Someone must have killed him and put him there before the plane went off the cliff into the Wash. Shortly after he is found, a local veteran is murdered at the pub. Soon, Billy is asked to investigate by the brass at Marston Hall.

The royal estate of Sandringham is nearby, and although folks have been told the royals are not using it, there appears to be people there off and on. There are also some folks in the area who belong to Nazi groups who would like to harm King George and his family. Thus, Billy comes into danger while continuing his detecting. Fortunately, he is being helped by Diana and Kaz, and finally solves all the mysteries. This is my favorite of the series.

I thank Soho Press and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.

Benn has done it again. This 18th in the Billy Boyle series doesn't disappoint. Stronger in the mystery arena, less World War II action this time around, although I was fascinated to learn about the Ritchie Boys and their interrogation methods that were so useful in gathering military intelligence. Those new to the series could start here, but why would you? Highly recommended for all series fans, as well as historical mystery and World War II enthusiasts.