When Hell Struck Twelve by James Benn is the most powerful Boyle book so far in the series. While it is difficult to read due to the descriptions of the carnage of war, it is important for that very reason. War is hell, and it is too easy to dismiss it when it is far away. Diane (Billy's love) is once again captured. Kaz (his friend) has a bad heart. They are in Paris when it is liberated. Tremendous read. ( )

I have been reading this series since the beginning. Love the characters and Benn's attention to history. ( )

Billy and Kaz have been investigating and seeing the horrors of war for a couple years and it is seemingly starting to manifest in physical ways for both men. They start in Falaise, a stand the Poles took in France that I didn't know much about. With the march on Paris in the works, Patton is in France, and the resistance is starting to break ranks to favor a free France, DeGaulle or Communism. Looking for a traitor takes Billy and Kaz from the French countryside to Paris. where Billy is neatly aided by the grandfather of a detective in another series. ( )

Two ugly scenes bookend this bleak description of the liberation of Paris. One. the Poles savage fight to hold Hill 262 in Falaise and the other the bloody mess that ensued as the Germans left Paris. Billy struggles to carry out a diversionary plan for the allies to move past and keep chasing the fleeing Germans while popping bills and caring for the ailing Kaz. A brutal but rivering tale in this very good WW2 series. ( )

A Well-Crafted Wartime Backdrop for a Somewhat Clumsy Mystery

Author James Benn’s depiction of the events leading up to and during the Liberation of Paris—the backdrop for When Hell Struck Twelve—is outstanding. The Germans are retreating from Normandy after their defeat at the Battle for Hill 262. On the Battle’s 20th anniversary, President Eisenhower said that "… no other battlefield presented such a horrible sight of death, hell, and total destruction." Benn’s description in the opening chapters of the book does that statement justice. As the Germans retreat toward Paris after the defeat, a power vacuum is created, letting factions within the French resistance settle old scores. It’s not enough that the French are killing Germans and vice versa; the French are also killing each other. Our main characters, US Army detective Billy Boyle and Lieutenant Kazimierz (Kaz) find themselves entangled in this purgatory, witnessing the horrors of war from tank and gun battles on the streets of Paris to clandestine torture and murder in backrooms and deserted buildings. The psychological costs are also felt as our heroes develop mysterious headaches and uncontrollable muscle tremors. It’s a dark, brutal, unrelenting world compellingly drawn by Benn.

This stellar setting provides a backdrop to a mystery that, unfortunately, feels contrived and convenient. The Allied army leaks plans for the liberation of Paris to a French traitor, while actually, they plan to skirt the city and trap the Germans there. But rather than letting the Germans believe the traitor has succeeded in his espionage, Billy, Kaz, and the French raise a ruckus in their pursuit of the man. As the author notes, that reaction gives the stolen plans credibility, but it also makes them worthless. The Allies would just go to Plan B for the liberation of the city now that the theft is known; that is, unless they had no time to change plans. But they have time and in fact do change their minds, deciding to take Paris rather than bypassing it. Of course, the French traitor would have only been allowed to steal fake plans, right? Not so quick. Apparently, the Allies seeded their ruse with the real (and only?) plans for liberating Paris, because now they want to use them. There is apparently no Plan B as Billy and Kaz are sent off to stop the traitor who has been on the run for at least a day. He could have made copies. He could have talked to any number of people, both in person and on the phone. Other than providing a reason for Billy and Kaz to enter Paris (and the story to continue), why would the Allies do such a thing? There’s another change of direction in this basic storyline and several more bizarre coincidences that keep the mystery feeling fantastical, rather than real to the very end.

With a bit of work on the plot, Billy and Kaz could have ended up in the middle of the Liberation of Paris in ways that were both historically consistent and logically plausible. But as the book is written, the fiction felt like a somewhat clumsy add-on. ( )