Bücher von Peter Beale

Sicily, 1973In the heat of the day, the old man walked through the bead curtain in the doorway of Vittorio Rizzo's small bar, paused for a moment to accustom his eyes to the incongruous darkness of the place, went up to the bar, ordered a café 'ristretto', drank it, paid and left to go the few metres down the narrow street to Ciccio Guglielmo's general supply store, where, since this worthy was in Rizzo's along with most of the adult male population of our village, it was his wife, Mirella, who sold the stranger two 25-kilo sacks of cement, which he picked up, one in each hand, much as if they were filled with feathers, thanked her and walked back, past the bar, out of the village, into the baking countryside. In a silk shirt. Nothing caused more comment. Over the ten-odd years before the murders, once or twice a week, we would see the old man in his silk shirt, his long hair sun-bleached white, held in place by a bandana, walking into the village, having a coffee, picking up building supplies, walking out. Always on foot, his boots covered in dust, never a sign of sweat staining the perfection of the floating silk which most obviously covered a very strong body to carry what he did with so little effort. We speculated who he was and where he could possibly live, but since he never spoke, other than the few words necessary to order his coffee and such things as he needed from Guglielmo's, we were left to wonder. It wasn't until the shepherd, Pietro Paoli, in for a drink and gossip, as was his seasonal habit, his sheep and goats filling the street with their stench and droppings, told us he regularly saw the old man walking far out in the hills, occasionally stopping at the spring on Batistero's farm, heading for the coast. But there was nothing there. Just cliffs. Not even access to the sea, which is why the developers and speculators had left that part of the island alone. And it was at least fifteen kilometres away; a thirty kilometre round-trip on foot - in our heat! It made you think. To most people an island in the Mediterranean is a small place inhabited by a few locals who are overwhelmed by hoards of summer tourists whom they righteously exploit. But an island as big as Switzerland? With the population of Finland or Norway? Sicily is that - and more. Much more. For a start we are older. Our civilization predates the Scandinavians by thousands of years and the Helvetians by -! What does it matter? We have a saying that when the Swiss are civilised the Mafia will speak. Well, that is not quite fair. We refer to them, the foreigners, as the people from the north - 'dal nord' - and to the older generation of Sicilians, enfolding in their genetic makeup centuries of conquests layered one on top of another, who remember that Italy as a unified country is scarcely 100 years old, this would include anywhere north of Rome. So the old man was always 'il vecchio venuto dal nord'. It was reckoned to his credit that he kept his mouth shut, particularly about himself. We are close, you see, a tight-mouthed race even when we are curious. So this man, who was not really old when we first saw him, became old over the years, but to us he was 'il vecchio' from the beginning, which gave him substance somehow, a gravitas not normally accorded a stranger, leave alone 'un forestiero'. Then, of course, he saw what he should not have seen, which changed everything between us. Forever.

Lucky Lancaster charts the nail biting seafaring adventures of James "Lucky" Lancaster as he grows from a stumbling midshipman into a battle scarred naval hero. Temporary peace with Napoleon suspends James' naval career. He returns to the family estate, discovering that his father, Lord Lancaster has died, and his half-brother has stolen his inheritance.Now penniless, he is blocked from seeing his sweetheart, the dynamic Lady Edith, by her over-protective parents.James endeavours to escape the poor house by starting a risky smuggling venture. Can he escape the Excise men, retrieve his inheritance and avoid the legal traps set by his half-brother to dishonour him. Will the unconventional Edith delay her arranged marriage? Has James' luck finally run out?"A NEW HEREO HAS ARRIVED"Anastasia Man"A REAL PAGE TURNER"Pamela GodfreyPeter Beale's cinematically charged, first novel, is surely influenced by his illustrious film career - working on the likes of Dr Zhivago and Star Wars. Consequently, Lucky Lancaster is an action-packed historical epic, mixing espionage, romance and social intrigue.

The Murder of Karla Plane is a mystery story, full of intrigue, glamour and complex characters. Set in both Paris, New York City and the expensive enclave of Newport, Rhode Island. in the period between WW1 and the great Wall Street crash of 1929, the story follows Karla, an intelligent and sophisticated French beauty who becomes seriously implicated in the dangers of the Great War and the dangers of American HIgh Society during the Roaring 20's.