Solemn Graves by James Benn. In this latest installment Billy Boyle is a special investigator for Eisenhower during World War 2. This episode occurs after the Normandy invasion. A murder takes place in a farm house doubling as a command center. In a zone in which so much violent death is happening and every one is armed to the teeth; it is quite a mess to sort out. Feelings are also running high with the locals deciding who is or is not a collaborator. Motives abound. It is a grim but well written mystery, with as many layer as a fancy French pastry
"A double murder in a French chateau just after D-Day threatens Allied operations, and US Army detective Billy Boyle is called to investigate. July, 1944, a full month after D-Day. Billy, Kaz, and Big Mike are assigned to investigate a double murder, close to the front lines in Normandy.An American officer and a member of the French Resistance were found dead in a manor house outside the town of Trevieres. The investigation is shrouded in secrecy, due to the highly confidential nature of the American unit headquartered at the Manoir de Castilly; the 23rdHeadquarters Special Troops. This vague name covered a 1,000-man unitwith a unique mission within the US Army: to impersonate other US Army units in order to deceive the enemy, causing them to think they were facing large formations, when in reality it was the 23rd(they called themselves The Ghost Army) creating deceptions by radio traffic, dummy inflatable vehicles, and sound effects. Not even the units adjacent to their positions were to know what they were doing. The balance of power in WWII hangs in the balance--can Billy solve the crime before the Ghost Army is exposed?"--