Ed Ruggero’s Blame the Dead is the thrilling start of an action-packed and timely World War II series by a former Army Officer for fans of compelling historical fiction. Set against the heroism and heartbreak of World War II, former Army officer Ed Ruggero brilliantly captures, with grace and authenticity, the evocative and timeless stories of ordinary people swept up in extraordinary times. … extraordinary times.
Sicily, 1943. Eddie Harkins, former Philadelphia beat cop turned Military Police lieutenant, reluctantly finds himself first at the scene of a murder at the US Army’s 11th Field Hospital. There the nurses contend with heat, dirt, short-handed staffs, the threat of German counterattack, an ever-present flood of horribly wounded GIs, and the threat of assault by one of their own–at least until someone shoots Dr. Myers Stephenson in the head.
With help from nurse Kathleen Donnelly, once a childhood friend and now perhaps something more, it soon becomes clear to Harkins that the unit is rotten to its core. As the battle lines push forward, Harkins is running out of time to find one killer before he can strike again.
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Great premise and based on real events. Loved the characters. Thought it was going to be a set up for a series and am disappointed that it is not going to be a series. It is stand alone good though. Keep me reading and ignoring my audibles for awhile.
I am not usually a fan of books dealing with the military and war. Blame the Dead is exceptional. If you have been in the military it is easy to tell that Ed Ruggero has personal military experience. Ultimately this is a murder mystery. But, it’s so much more than that. It exposes some very real problems women and men in the military deal with. There is depth to the characters in this novel. The story is well researched. This was a book I didn’t want to put down.
One of the doctors at this army field hospital is found murdered. He was NOT a “nice” guy. As a matter of fact, it could have been any number of people who could have committed this crime. Eddie Harkins is a military police officer and he has just stumbled upon this murder. He is a little out of his league. He has no idea what he is doing. The deeper he gets into the investigation the more questions he has.
There is a lot going on in this book. I was hooked from the get go! I love anything WWII and this unusual setting of an army field hospital was so mesmerizing to me. I learned so much. It is just hard to imagine what these nurses went through. The constant threat of assault, the dirt, the blood…these women were tough!
The characters, the setting and the murder investigation make this novel enthralling. The story did sort of lose steam in the middle but I still found it intriguing and very unique.
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
The title of this riveting, finely crafted novel may be Blame the Dead, but I blame author Ed Ruggero — for keeping me up at night, reading “just one more” chapter then another and another. Whether your interests lie in a well-wrought mystery, a classic cop story, historical settings or first-rate military fiction, this thoroughly enjoyable novel set during World War II checks the block. Great pacing, compelling characters, solid research and a fiendishly clever plot add up to non-stop reading excitement.
This book is a lot of fun, written with an insider’s feel for the U.S. Army and its history.
“This may surprise you, Lieutenant, but we have a pretty important job here…”
“This may surprise you, Lieutenant, but we have a pretty important job here. I didn’t volunteer because I like the clothes, or because I wanted to see every s**thole in Europe.”
I thoroughly enjoyed this book about an Army mobile hospital unit based on Palermo, Sicily during World War II. The book begins in August 1943.
The story basically centers on the nurses that work at the hospital unit and there’s a lot of historical happenings that I enjoyed reading about, in and around how the mobile units functioned.
This is also a mystery story and a story of intrigue. An Army doctor who was known for the horrendous way he treated the nurses is found murdered. One of the first people on the scene happens to be Army Lieutenant MP officer Eddie Harkins, who used to be a street cop in Philadelphia. He ends up investigating the murder rather than the Assistant Provost Marshal, who has even less investigative experience than him.
There’s stories and sub-stories galore in the book and I enjoyed all the different characters and threads of plot.
I highly recommend this book if you enjoy historical fiction or murder mysteries.
I received this book from Forge Reads through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
WWII Sicily – Murder exposes how nurses were treated by doctors and officers,