The Nature of Things

This historical mystery series set in the World War II era has been recommended to me on several occasions over the years. It seemed churlish not to give it a try, starting of course with the first in the series, the eponymous Billy Boyle . William "Billy" Boyle was a 22 year old Irish-American policeman in Boston when the United States entered World War II in 1941. He had just made detective and was looking forward to a long career along the lines of his father and uncle who were also Boston cops. His family was naturally concerned about the thought of Billy being swept into the war and they pulled all the strings they could lay their hands on to get him into Officers Candidate School. The family, on his mother's side, had a connection to Gen. Eisenhower through Ike's wife Mamie, and they were hoping that Billy could be assigned as an aide to Ike in some cushy office in Washington. It didn't quite work out that way.  Billy was assigned to the general but, after h...