James Benn

James R. Benn is the author of the Billy Boyle World War II series, historical mysteries set within the Allied High Command during the Second World War. The series began with Billy Boyle, which takes place in England and Norway in 1942.

Benn's new novel, A Bitter Wind, is the twentieth installment of the Billy Boyle series.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Benn's reply:

Re-reading, actually. More than three decades ago I read Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There by Philip P. Hallie. It tells the true story of a French village during the Second World War, and how the residents came together to save thousands of Jews from certain death at the hands of the Nazis. I never forgot that story and have recommended the book many times. But it was only recently that I decided to look into Le Chambon as a setting for a future Billy Boyle WWII mystery novel, so a re-read is in order. I’m excited about this possibility and hope I can do it justice.

The basic facts are that in one small French town in Nazi-occupied France, some 4,000 Jews were taken in and sheltered by a group of Huguenot Christians, who understood from their own history the threat of persecution. From 1940 until Liberation in 1944, the people of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon joined in what can be called a conspiracy of goodness. Risking all, the village literally doubled itself, giving sanctuary to some three or four thousand people who were escaping from the Vichy authorities and the Nazi regime. They organized themselves to forge identification and ration cards and to help refugees escape into neutral Switzerland.

The author, a professor of philosophy, was a decorated Army veteran of WWII. After years of research into the Holocaust and the roots of human and institutional cruelty, he had been overcome with a deep personal despair that seemed to exclude the possibility that goodness and right could still exist.

At the height of his depression, Hallie stumbled across the miracle of Le Chambon. Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed is a deep and moving exploration of the renewal of spirit and optimism that Hallie found in the bravery of this small village of French Hugenots who had the courage and moral certainty to face evil and to resist it.

Learn more about the Billy Boyle WWII Mystery Series at James R. Benn's website.

The Page 99 Test: The First Wave.

The Page 69 Test: Evil for Evil.

The Page 69 Test: Rag and Bone.

My Book, The Movie: Death's Door.

The Page 69 Test: The White Ghost.

The Page 69 Test: Blue Madonna.

Writers Read: James R. Benn (September 2016).

Q&A with James R. Benn.

The Page 69 Test: Proud Sorrows.

The Page 69 Test: The Phantom Patrol.

Writers Read: James R. Benn (September 2024).

The Page 69 Test: A Bitter Wind.

--Marshal Zeringue