THE RED HORSE

Did the drowsy patient fall from the clock tower, did he jump, or was he pushed?

Narrator Billy Boyle, captain with the American Allied Expeditionary Force and frequent sleuth, finds himself a patient at Saint Albans Pauper Lunatic Asylum in England, with little recollection of how he got there and only slightly clearer memories of his sidekick, Kaz. Both Boyle’s lover, Diana, and Kaz’s sister, Angelika, have been taken to the Nazi prison camp of Ravensbrück. A moment after Billy spots two men in the asylum’s clock tower, one of them—Thomas Holland, the only survivor of a unit that was captured by the Germans and repeatedly tortured—flies through the air to his death. Billy grows suspicious under the aggressive questioning of Dr. Robinson, the head of the asylum. He searches the facility until he finds Kaz, who suggests that Billy break into Robinson’s office, where Billy pores over Holland’s file. Strangely, Robinson’s notes on Holland are sparse. But both Kaz and Holland have been treated with Robinson’s unusual “sleep cure”; could Holland’s tumble be an accidental fall? The arrival of Billy’s old pals Big Mike and Lt. Feliks Kanski, along with the no-nonsense Maj. Charles Cosgrove, provides possible reinforcements in Billy’s search for the truth. The multilayered plot leaves the asylum grounds to follow the exploits of the Special Operations Executive as well as the eponymous resistance group and a possible link to some at Saint Albans.

Benn's latest caper has fascinating historical roots and nicely balances action and investigation.