“Billy Boyle,” by James R. Benn (Soho, 294 pages, $23)
Cocky young Lt. William Boyle was, like his father, a Boston cop. He’s also a distant cousin of Mamie Doud Eisenhower, which is how he ends up as Ike’s personal investigator in this engaging debut novel, set in 1942 at U.S. Army Headquarters in London and Suffolk. With a potential Allied invasion of Norway in the offing, Billy’s assignment is to find a possible German spy among the many Norwegians living in exile in England, a task he takes quite seriously as he tries earnestly and often comically to fit in with his British colleagues.
Along the way he gets shot at, searches for a murderer, meets a brave WREN and goes undercover on a dangerous mission that takes him nearly to the Arctic Circle. Billy is just an average Joe who quickly gets in over his head with all these plots and counterplots, where nothing is ever what it seems to be, but he stubbornly soldiers on. The World War II atmosphere and history are expertly handled.
“The Merlot Murders,” by Ellen Crosby (Scribner, 286 pages, $24)
The Virginia wine country is the attractive setting for this debut mystery, which opens with Lucie Montgomery returning to her family’s vineyard after two years in France recuperating from a serious automobile accident. She uses a cane now but is eager to take on the running of the winery, severely neglected by her gambler father, who has just died and left his children deep in debt.
Lucie’s dysfunctional siblings have other ideas, however, and then Lucie’s godfather is murdered soon after telling her that her father’s death was no accident. With the exception of Lucie, none of the principal characters is especially likable, which gives the book an edginess that is somewhat at odds with its intrinsically cozy appeal. But the well-presented information on wine-making and grape cultivation, going back to Thomas Jefferson’s dream of turning Virginia into a major wine-producing region, provides an intriguing background to the story.
“Still as Death,” by Sarah Stewart Taylor (St. Martin’s Minotaur, 304 pages, $24.95)
It would be hard to think of a more fitting occupation for an amateur sleuth than that of Sweeney St. George, an art history professor specializing in funerary art and customs. While curating an exhibit at the Boston museum where she teaches, a chance discovery leads her to a 30-year- old crime in which a young Harvard intern was murdered after witnessing a robbery.
Sweeney, a bright, complicated woman with an unhappy past, becomes obsessed with the girl’s murder, especially after a similar robbery takes place during her exhibit. She calls upon Cambridge homicide detective Tim Quinn for help, knowing that working with him could jeopardize her current live-in relationship with a handsome London antiques expert.
As circumstances force Sweeney to make decisions about her future, she begins to drink more than she should. The mystery is wrapped up by the end of the book, but Sweeney’s problems are a long way from being resolved. Stay tuned.
“The Thief Taker,” by Janet Gleeson (Simon & Schuster, 305 pages, $14)
Thief takers, who were essentially lawless precursors of modern-day police, figure in any number of mysteries set in Georgian London, but here they take a back seat to the young widow Agnes Meadowes, the capable cook to a prominent family of silversmiths. When an enormous wine cooler is stolen from the household and an apprentice is murdered, Agnes is commissioned by her master to investigate the crime.
It’s a dangerous job for this respectable woman, who is reluctant to endanger herself or her young son, but she rises to the challenge. The author, an expert on antiques (which figure in all her historical mysteries), knows her history as well, and the result is an entertaining and insightful look at a colorful world fraught with peril for most of its citizens.
Tom and Enid Schantz write a monthly column on new mysteries.
