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  • Published: 15 August 2018
  • ISBN: 9781616959524
  • Imprint: Soho Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $32.99

The Devouring




The 12th book in James R. Benn's Billy Boyle WWII mystery series. A murder in wartime Switzerland reveals the complicity of Swiss bankers and officials with the Nazis.

A murder in wartime Switzerland reveals Swiss complicity with the Nazis in World War II, and US Army detective Billy Boyle is called to investigate.

Europe, 1944: Captain Billy Boyle and his friend Lieutenant Piotr “Kaz” Kazimierz are sent to neutral Switzerland to work with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), investigating Swiss banks that are laundering looted Nazi gold. The US and Swiss governments are about to embark on diplomatic discussions regarding the Safehaven Protocols, aimed at limiting the amount of war materials exported by Switzerland to the Nazis, stemming the tide of looted gold, and preventing postwar use of Nazi wealth by war criminals. With the talks about to begin and the Gestapo ever present, the OSS wants Billy and Kaz to protect the participants, which turns out to be a very deadly task.

The plans go wrong from the beginning when Billy and Kaz crashland in France. As they make their way through occupied territory to the border, they meet Anton Lasho, a member of the Sinti ethnic group, whose family was slaughtered by the Nazis, and who is, in turn, a one-man Nazi-killing machine. They’ll need his help, because as they find once they make it across the border, Swiss banks are openly laundering gold “harvested” from concentration camps, and those who are profiting will do everything they can to protect their wealth and hide their dark secrets.

  • Published: 15 August 2018
  • ISBN: 9781616959524
  • Imprint: Soho Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $32.99

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Praise for The Devouring

Praise for The White Ghost

  • "Billy Boyle gets better and better . . . A must-read series."--Lee Child

  • "Cleverly told . . . Weaves fascinating military facts with obscure historical details about the islands and native life."--The Arizona Republic

  • "The tension between a murder investigation and wartime action has always been at the heart of this series--How can one killing matter in a world where hundreds die every day?--but here it is ramped up to a new level, in terms of both suspense and character development. Working with recently declassified documents about the Solomon Islands Campaign, Benn spins an absolute corker of a war story. The best of an always satisfying series."--Booklist, Starred Review

  • "Riveting . . . Great historical fiction for readers who crave a good mystery as well as a good war story."--Historical Novel Society
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