After a couple of harrowing missions, Captain Billy Boyle is looking forward to a leave in the peaceful Norfolk countryside. Best of all, his lady love Diana Seaton will be there too, at her ancestral home, Seaton Manor. Alas, the war has other plans. Billy is assigned to find out how a local Army officer got into the cockpit of a crashed bomber, among other things.
Proud Sorrows is an excellent addition to the long-running Billy Boyle World War II Mystery series. The main characters are so well-written that they have become like old friends. The research is immaculate and is woven seamlessly into the plot. As always, Mr. Benn has highlighted a special historical event. In this case, Billy interacts with the Richie Boys, native German speakers who were both American born or German Jews who’d found safety in the United States. They used their language skills to interrogate newly captured German prisoners and to provide important intelligence services. Proud Sorrows is another winner in a stellar series.

unputdownable, resistance-efforts, WW2, ex-cop, undercover, action-adventure, us-army, historical-novel, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, history-and-culture, sly-humor, ETO*****

Billy Boyle is a former Boston PD detective whose mother (a relative of Mamie Eisenhower) contrived to have him appointed as an aide to the General in the summer of 1942 instead of being general cannon fodder. Little did they know what reality would become.
Now it is autumn 1944 and Billy has seen and done a lot from England to Africa. In the guise of fiction, a number of unpleasant facts about US army and civilian attitudes and practices are aired in this compelling story. I am one of many who hope that these things will remain only in memory. The characters are very real and seem familiar, the research is solid, the plot is full of action and extremely enjoyable.
I read the first in series about ten years ago, so now I'll have to go back, and binge read to catch up on everything I've missed!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Soho Press/Soho Crime via NetGalley. Thank you!

This was another wonderful entry in the Billy Boyle series, it was a great World War 2 mystery. I really enjoyed going on this entire series with Captain Billy Boyle. James R. Benn has a great way of writing an engaging mystery with wonderfully done historical elements. I can't wait to read more in this series as this was wonderfully done.

"Pursall walked up the narrow ridge and Dahlquist followed, the two of them still arguing. We went forward a few paces and knelt behind a blackened tree. GIs all around us watched the two officers continue to argue, knowing their fates hung in the balance. But the outcome wasn’t in doubt. A colonel doesn’t win arguments with a general, especially not this general."

Without a doubt, this is the top WWII series currently published. For sheer enjoyment of intricate wartime plots, based on true events, tricky moral dilemmas, and inevitable murders, there is none better than the Billy Boyle series. This is a series that is impeccably researched and incredibly well written. Benn provides each story with action-driven plots and complex characters that have naturally grown over the war time years encompassed by the series.
Readers will appreciate this latest episode in young Billy's wartime career, which highlights the legendary 442nd Regimental Combat Team, comprised of Japanese Americans. This storied unit suffered terrible losses at the hands of incompetent officers. Their story is well told here, heartbreaking and heroic. But, as with all of Benn's books, there is much more in this complex tale - here we also have French resistance groups, the Vichy government, and spies all entangled in the final mess of WWII in France. Treachery is always a specialty during war, and Benn does his usual spectacular job in giving us a high stakes, exciting, tragic, and somehow satisfying story. Top notch series!

Benn again does what he excels at: presenting fascinating information about WWII while telling an engaging mystery starring Billy Boyle and his assorted friends. In this story, set mostly in a recently liberated area of France, we also get to visit the island of Crete and Algeria, with references to events in Palestine and Cairo (settings I would love to see more of!) The plot did feel a bit contrived in places, for example setting up events so Billy could interact with the heroic 442 infantry regiment, made up of Nisei fighters, or when Billy runs into two African soldiers who had hidden in France during the occupation. However, it's exactly these bits of history that keep me coming back to the series. My only complaint: I finished the book in one day. Benn is amazing at writing a book a year, but that means I still have over a year to wait for the next series entry!