Guest post from Jim Benn, to mark the twentieth novel in his superb Billy Boyle series.

A few years ago, I began pondering a storyline for the twentieth novel in my Billy Boyle WWII mystery series. It had to be something special.

As often happens, while researching the book I was currently writing, I found a thread for a future book—the advent of electronic warfare during the Second World War.

Early on, the British Royal Air Force began to incorporate sophisticated radio jamming equipment into their four-engine bombers, to divert German fighter planes away from their formation. By 1944, equipment code-named Jostle, Corona, and Airborne Cigar became standard—and top secret—equipment on American bombers.

Interesting stuff, but too technical. I dug deeper and found the human element I needed. Jewish refugees who’d fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s were recruited for their native language skills. Their job was to listen in on enemy transmissions and “spoof” ground transmissions, ordering night fighters away from the British bomber stream. Young women were hired, since the Germans employed females for their ground to air transmissions. Young men flew as part of the bomber crews, doing the same work.

All good stuff.

Then I stumbled across a name. Jean Conan Doyle.

Could it be?

Yes! Jean was the daughter of Sir Arthur himself. She served as an intelligence officer during the war and commanded a radio intercept unit staffed mainly by these German-speaking Jewish refugees.

Billy is a big fan of Sir Arthur. In the first book, I guided him on a drive through London which took him past 221B Baker Street. He gawked at his fictional hero’s home, and now, twenty years later, he is only one degree of separation from the great Arthur Conan Doyle.

And that, dear readers, is how A Bitter Wind, the twentieth novel in the Billy Boyle series was conceived.

Dana sez–And that, dear readers, is how the porridge gets into the bowl. Sometimes I think discovering that one tiny inspirational item in the flood of research we writers all wade through is even more fun than writing “The End.”

Here is the lady herself.

According to her Wikipedia entry, Harry Houdini called her a tomboy. I’m looking forward to meeting her in A Bitter Wind.

#thiswritinglife Chatter A Bitter Wind Billy Boyle James R. Benn jean conan doyle