This is a solid crime story set in WWII, right before D-Day.  Lt. Eddie Harkins was a beat-cop before his enlistment and someone was paying attention.  He gets reassigned to Britain to investigate the death of a female OSS operative; an American.  He wonders why he was specifically requested as there are operatives from the newly formed Criminal Investigation Division (CID) available; but they are being kept out of the investigation deliberately. 

Almost immediately, he finds the last person who was with the deceased the night she died; but he's dead drunk and unable to be questioned.  Eddie locks him up with the intention of revisiting him once he sobers up.  And then, almost immediately, his superiors decide they have the murderer and are ready to proceed with a court-martial before Eddie even finishes his investigation.

The trouble is, the investigation begins to point to a lot of other interested parties and implies that the murder wasn't a simple crime of passion but one with ramifications for the upcoming invasion of the European continent.  Eddie's boss is deliberately interfering with his investigation and will not give him the support or resources to properly uncover the truth.  But Eddie is determined to use any and all means to prove the drunk pilot is innocent - if he is.  He cannot allow the man to be railroaded for convenience' sake.  And there's also the minor issue of whether there are Soviet spies running around the invasion staging ground and why they have an interest in the case.  Even more confusing for Eddie is why the Soviets might be involved if they are allies with a vested interest in a successful invasion.  The answer is more surprising than he could imagine.

Eddie is joined by interesting characters from his partner, Wickman, to his driver, Private Pamela Lowell and his landlady, Beverly. His adversaries range from his boss, Major Sinnott, who distinguished himself working with the French resistance and chafes to return to the action; to Major Gefner, the lawyer determined to prosecute the pilot regardless of evidence; and to the Russian Novikov who might actually be a friendly.  Private Lowell is probably the second-best character due to her personal growth based on her working relationship with Eddie.  Wickman is a very sympathetic character.  I like all of them and thought they worked well within the story.  The plot was well-done for a crime story. ~~ Catherine Book