Sharpe for the Blitz years… A meaty, all-action yarn
– SUNDAY TELEGRAPH on ODIN MISSION
August, 1942. North Africa. The desert war hangs in the balance. Although their retreat has finally been halted, morale in the British Army is at rock bottom. When the commander of the Eighth Army, General Gott, is killed, it seems that foul play is at work. An impenetrable Axis spy circuit could be compromising any hope the Allies have of stemming the Nazi tide.
Jack Tanner, recovering from wounds in a Cairo hospital, is astonished to receive a battlefield commission which will propel him into a very different world when he returns to action. Fit once more, he finds himself facing the full onslaught of Rommel’s latest offensive.
In its aftermath, Tanner and his trusty sidekick Sykes are recruited to work behind the Axis lines in a desperate attempt to take the fight to the Nazis. But the murky world of subterfuge, deceit and murder they find themselves in is a million miles away from the certainties of the battlefield and somehow they must discover who they can trust in the cat-and-mouse world of counter-espionage.
HELLFIRE sees Tanner fighting his way through his most dangerous adventure yet – one that takes him from the dark backstreets of Cairo to the open Mediterranean and finally to one of the decisive clashes of the entire war – the Battle of Alamein.
James Holland was born in Salisbury and studied at Durham University. He has written for a number of newspapers and magazines. He is the prolific author of FORTRESS MALTA: An Island Under Siege, 1940-43, TOGETHER WE STAND: North Africa, 1942-43 and ITALY’S SORROW: A Year of War, 1944-45, and two novels, THE BURNING BLUE and A PAIR OF SILVER WINGS. He has also written and presented a film, ‘Victory in Europe’. Married with a son, he lives near Salisbury.