Rag and Bone

by James R. Benn Book 5 in the A Billy Boyle WWII Mystery series.

First published 2010

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4.3(1,770)

General Dwight D. Eisenhower sends Billy Boyle to London to investigate the murder of a Soviet security officer at a moment when the alliance against Germany is already under severe strain. Evidence connected to the Katyn Forest massacre has enraged Polish officers, and Scotland Yard suspects that the killing may be an act of revenge.

Suspicion falls on Billy’s friend Piotr Kazimierz, a Polish aristocrat in exile, giving Billy a personal reason to challenge the official theory. To clear Kaz, he must uncover the victim’s activities without worsening a dispute that could damage relations among the United States, Britain, Poland and the Soviet Union.

Katyn makes the murder politically explosive because public acknowledgement of Soviet responsibility would threaten the wartime coalition. Billy is therefore investigating under conditions in which proving the truth may damage the alliance his own government is trying to preserve. The case places personal loyalty to Kaz beside the strategic compromises required when democracies depend on Stalin’s armies to defeat Nazi Germany.