The Dead Soldier: A Doherty Mystery

PI Doherty takes on his most difficult caseIt's the spring of 1960. Sixteen-year old Mary Margaret McDonald wishes to hire private investigator Hugh Doherty to find out about her long-lost father. The only hitch is that the father, Corporal John McDonald, was killed sixteen years earlier during World War II. At the time of his death the girl's mother was pregnant with her. To Doherty's surprise the family is expecting him to travel to France to find out how the girl's father met his end. Having never been out of the country except for his time during the war, Doherty is reluctant to take on such a ludicrous investigation in a foreign country. However, the girl's stepfather, B.W. Royal, a member of one of Rhode Island's most prominent families, is willing to pay Doherty a healthy retainer in hopes of endearing himself to his stepdaughter with whom he has a contentious relationship. Royal admits that granting the girl's wishes will amount to little more than paying Doherty to go on a fool's errand. With a lot of money being dangled in in his face, Doherty decides to take on a case. In pursuing this assignment he is confronted with the complexities of operating in a post-war France where the consequences are much more dire than he initially thought. His search for the real story about the dead soldier will require him to rely on his resourcefulness in a place where he is a complete stranger. Two Americans working for our government there help him make the acquaintance of a mysterious expatriate American philanthropist underwriting a number of restoration projects along France's northern coast. What Doherty did not anticipate is that these connections will embroil him in a world of labor racketeering, political corruption, and murder - all orchestrated by a malicious French gangster.