Alex Pearl

Witty, saucy and unputdownable. 11 out of 10!

In 2006, the author Mark Sullivan was at a particularly low ebb. His younger brother and best friend had drunk himself to death; his last novel had gone down like a lead balloon; and he was staring bankruptcy in the face. He began to have suicidal thoughts, realizing that with his insurance policy in place, he was worth more to his family dead than alive. Then, by chance, he was introduced to an old man named Pino Lella. The two men had some kind of affinity, and the older man confided in Sullivan and eventually revealed his extraordinary story from the closing years of the war in Italy. It was by Sullivan's own admission a story that made his own circumstances look incredibly tame by comparison. Here was a story he could lose himself in. A story that would literally save him. And what an incredible story it is. In 1943, Pino Lella was a seventeen-year-old teenager with nothing more than music, food and girls on his mind. But his life is suddenly thrown into turmoil when the family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombing. As a result, Pino is sent by his father to stay with the priest Father Re in the Alps and out of harm's way. And it is here that the boy is trained to climb mountain passes and to familiarise himself with the terrain. The priest is running an underground escape route for Jews to escape the Nazis by taking a treacherous expedition across the Alps and into Switzerland. Pino will become one of the route's invaluable guides. As Pino nears the age of eighteen, his parents have a terrifying choice. Should their son join the Italian army only to be butchered on the Russian front; join the resistance where his plight looked every bit as precarious; or alternatively join the German army? In an attempt to protect him, they insist that he enlists as a German soldier. Pino protests bitterly, but finally and begrudgingly joins up, and is soon injured and sent to recuperate. By some miraculous stroke of luck, he helps to fix one of the German staff cars and is noticed by the car's passenger, General Hans Leyer - Adolf Hitler's left-hand man in Italy and one of the Third Reich's most powerful commanders. Leyer immediately fires his driver and appoints Pino as his replacement on the spot. From this moment onwards Pino is ideally placed to seek retribution on the forces of evil that have wreaked havoc on his homeland. He has a unique opportunity to spy on the Nazi's plans for Italy. He also encounters Anna, the maid to Leyer's mistress, and for the first time in his life, falls hopelessly in love. 'Beneath a Scarlet Sky' is a powerful and emotive saga of love and loss set against one of the darkest episodes of human history. It's a haunting and beautifully penned narrative that will stay with you long after turning the last page. Alex Pearl is the author of 'Sleeping with the Blackbirds' and 'The Chair Man'

This ingenious and compelling thriller by Charles Harris revolves around Ross Blackleigh, a detective inspector who has mysteriously lost his memory of the previous 18 months following some kind of altercation that leaves him with a head injury. Now on trial for murder, Blackleigh frantically attempts to piece together his own recent past while also trying to solve a murder mystery for which he now stands accused. This is a fast-paced and gripping tale that is very deftly and eloquently penned. Harris gives us enough convincing detail when outlining his chief players without over-egging the pudding. Difficult to predict, the narrative provides plenty of twists and turns, and the concluding pages are wonderfully dark. ‘Room 15’ is a very satisfying tour de force of a thriller with a very chilling and pitch-perfect crescendo of a last page. I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Alex Pearl is the author of 'Sleeping with the Blackbirds' and 'The Chair Man'