The entry begins:
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a commune in the Haute-Loire department in south-central France. During the Second World War, it was the scene of a remarkable conspiracy of goodness. Local residents made the commune a haven for Jews and other refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. The refugees were hidden both within the town and in the countryside while some were escorted to neutral Switzerland. Precise numbers are impossible to determine, but estimates of the number of people sheltered in Chambon and its area range from eight hundred to five thousand.About The Ninth Circle, from the publisher:
I am researching this chapter in WWII France for a Billy Boyle novel, and I’m reading two accounts which differ greatly in their tone and approach (both are excellent). One of the challenges in reading for research is finding a book that hits the marks you’re interested in as an author. Sometimes a book looks good but when you get into it, the material is disappointing.
Not so with these two titles.
Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There, by Philip P. Hallie.
This is perhaps the quintessential work on Le Chambon. It shows how quietly, peacefully, and in full view of the Vichy government and a nearby division of Nazi SS, Le Chambon's villagers and their clergy worked to save thousands of Jewish children and adults from certain death. At the center is...[read on]
To solve a double murder in Cuba, US Army Captain Billy Boyle will need to build unlikely alliances with Havana’s underworld and British intelligence, including Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming, whose naval wartime service would later inspire the James Bond novels.Learn more about the Billy Boyle WWII Mystery Series at James R. Benn's website.
This installment of James R. Benn’s fan-favorite, critically-acclaimed WWII mystery series marks 20 years of Billy Boyle, an Irish American cop from Boston thrust onto the staff of his “uncle” Ike Eisenhower for sensitive overseas military investigations.
January, 1945: If US Army Captain Billy Boyle thinks a summons to Havana will give him a chance to sip a cold Hatuey under the Caribbean sun, the fantasy is dead onarrival. Within hours of landing, Billy and his partner-in-crime-solving, Lieutenant Piotr Kazimierz, are assigned to investigate the murder of a Navy intelligence officer. But as the men wait for an informant at a beachside bar, a bomb goes off, and they narrowly escape with their lives. Then the informant—a Cuban taxi driver named Hector Díaz—is found dead outside his apartment. What did Hector know? And who was so desperate to silence him?
Thrust into a double-murder investigation, Billy and Kaz team up with the brass at the British Legation in Havana, including none other than Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming, to gather intel from sources inside Havana’s criminal underworld. Their search takes them from Havana’s Chinatown to the Gran Casino Nacional, where notorious gangster Meyer Lansky offers his services if it means defeating the suspected common enemy—the Sicherheitsdienst, the intelligence wing of the Nazi military—and finding out what sort of intelligence they are so hell-bent on keeping top-secret at this late stage in the war.
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.
Writers Read: James R. Benn (September 2025).
The Page 69 Test: The Ninth Circle.
Writers Read: James R. Benn.
--Marshal Zeringue
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