The Refusal Camp: Stories

Several of the nine stories in this eclectic if hit-or-miss collection from Benn (the Billy Boyle WWII mysteries) focus on life in prisoner of war camps. Benn is at his best when employing dark humor in otherwise grim situations, as shown in “Vengeance Weapon,” about a Jewish concentration camp prisoner who manages to extract a strange form of revenge on his most hated guard years later when the two are working as colleagues in the U.S. Revenge is also the running idea in “The Horse Chestnut Tree,” one of the volume’s strongest entries, about an enslaved boy who finds a clever way to strike back at a white friend who betrayed him. The gripping“Red Christmas” examines treachery among prisoners in a 1950s-era North Korean prison camp. An enjoyable dystopian tale, “Glass,” lays out what could happen, particularly in the publishing world, if someone found a functioning iPad, loaded with Stephen King novels, 30 years before Apple invented the device. Weaker entries include “Irish Tommy,” a ho-hum police procedural set in 1940s Boston that lacks atmosphere as well as punch, and the plodding “Billy Boyle: The Lost Prologue,” which leaves out Billy. Not just Billy Boyle fans will want to check out this one. Agent: Paula Munier, Talcott Notch Literary. (Mar.)