A Blind Goddess by James R. Benn

A Blind Goddess by James R. Benn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't read Billy Boyle for the mysteries. The mysteries are no better than "okay"—far too much coincidence for my taste. But I love mysteries set in authentic historical settings, and Benn's WWII settings are as authentic as they come.

That said, once you get past the coincidence of Billy being asked by a friend to investigate one murder, and being sent to the same location by his bosses to investigate another, the mystery is pretty well done.

The most annoying thing about the book is the cover: it depicts Billy being hit over the head and pushed into a canal. A crime that occurs but is never solved in the book. The cover shows the assailant as being another soldier. Why? It seems a little too specific for the usual excuse: which is just that the artist didn't actually read the book.

There are no happy endings. As with most of Benn's books, this is his way of airing historical dirty laundry: in this case the shameful treatment of black American soldiers during WWII—as Benn points out: to the serious detriment of the war effort.