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Published Sep 2017
320 pages
Genre: Mysteries
Publication Information
A murder in wartime Switzerland reveals Swiss complicity with the Nazis and profiteering during World War II.
Billy and Kaz are sent to neutral Switzerland to investigate the murder of a Swiss banking official with ties to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The US and Swiss governments are about to embark on diplomatic discussions regarding the Safehaven Protocols, which are aimed at limiting the amount of war materials exported by Switzerland to the Nazis, halting the laundering of looted gold, and preventing the postwar use of Nazi wealth for war criminals. With the talks about to begin, the OSS wants their involvement in the murder cleared up, as well as to protect the participants from any threat of violence.
The plans go wrong from the beginning when Billy and Kaz crash-land 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 that are profiting will do everything they can to protect their wealth and hide their dark secrets.
"Starred Review. Suspenseful ... Benn does his usual excellent job of incorporating historical background into a fast-paced plot, which barely slows down on the way to the satisfactory resolution." - Publishers Weekly
"Benn molds an entertaining story out of Billy and his cohorts' encounters with odious Swiss bankers and a cadre of Gestapo agents stationed in Bern to protect the loot. Great history here." - Booklist
"Benn's 12th World War II mystery keeps the action coming, with a nifty whodunit chaser." - Kirkus
"The theme of Swiss complicity with the Nazis and their profiteering is absorbing and should appeal to historical fiction fans, mystery readers, and military buffs." - Library Journal
This information about The Devouring was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
James R. Benn is the author of the Billy Boyle World War II mysteries. The debut, Billy Boyle, was selected as a Top Five book of the year by Book Sense and was a Dilys Award nominee, A Blind Goddess was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, The Rest Is Silence was a Barry Award nominee, and The Devouring was a Macavity Award nominee. Benn, a former librarian, splits his time between the Gulf Coast of Florida and Connecticut with his wife, Deborah Mandel.
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