Luciano’s Luck
The brilliant suspense thriller from the author of THE EAGLE HAS LANDED, set in the wartime battlegrounds of the Mediterranean.A brilliant suspense thriller from the wartime battlegrounds of the Mediterranean.In the historic summer offensive of 1943, the Allies stand ready to invade Sicily. The cost will be high in lives and time, unless the Sicilians themselves can be persuaded to rise against their Nazi oppressors.Only the Mafia can command an uprising – and the Godfather refuses to fight…Desperate action is needed to dent Hitler's evil pride. Someone who understands Mafia ways, and knows how to earn the loyalty the Allies crave. Someone who isn't afraid of killing his own…
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Jack Higgins
Luciano’s Luck
Dedication
for Sacha and George
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Publisher’s Note
Foreword
Sicily—1943
1
It was just before evening, when the jeep carrying Harry . . .
2
It started to rain as Carter went over the ridge, . . .
3
The JU52 which flew in from Rome with Field Marshal . . .
4
It was four weeks later when the jeep carrying Harry . . .
5
On his twentieth lap of the exercise yard at Great . . .
6
It was raining hard in Liverpool the following night when . . .
7
The old Dakota lifted off the main runway at Ringway . . .
8
The Avro Lancaster was the most successful Allied bomber of . . .
9
In the living room of his house at the back . . .
10
Vito opened the oven door of the boiler in the . . .
11
Pietro Mori had sent his wife to bed early and . . .
12
Luciano and Maria followed the same rough track for almost . . .
13
Koenig was standing at the window of his office at . . .
14
Padre Giovanni led the way down the winding stone stair . . .
15
They left just after nine the following morning in Barbera’s . . .
16
Detweiler’s body was racked by convulsions as he bucked and . . .
17
Flying at one thousand feet the view was spectacular in . . .
18
Luciano and Vito Barbera came out of the mortuary and . . .
19
And so, the Mafia card was played and played to . . .
About the Author
Other Books by Jack Higgins
Copyright
About the Publisher
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
LUCIANO’S LUCK was first published in the UK by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd in 1981 and later by Signet Books. This incredible novel has been out of print for some years, and in 2011, it seemed to the author and his publishers that it was a pity to leave such a good story languishing on his shelves. So we are delighted to be able to bring back LUCIANO’S LUCK for the pleasure of the vast majority of us who never had a chance to read the earlier editions.
FOREWORD
The Mafia, the Honoured Society, has always fascinated me. I first wrote about it in an earlier book, In the Hour before Midnight, and during the research came across the career of Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano, the famous American gangster. The legend that he was taken out of prison by American Intelligence and dropped into Sicily to prepare the way for the Allied invasion had been around for years, but was not taken seriously by most people. However, when I visited Sicily to do essential research for In the Hour Before Midnight, I actually met people who insisted that they had seen Luciano on the island before and during the invasion. It was enough for me. I stored the information until a more suitable time and so Luciano’s Luck was born.
In July 1943, American forces landed on the southern coast of Sicily and in an advance of incredible rapidity, reached Palermo in only seven days. That their success was due in no small measure to the co-operation of the Sicilian Mafia acting under the direct orders of Charles Lucky Luciano, then serving a sentence of thirty to fifty years in Great Meadow Penitentiary in New York State, is a matter of historical fact. What is particularly fascinating about this strange episode is that in Sicily to this day, there are those who insist that they saw Luciano in person with the American units during the early part of the invasion …
1
It was just before evening, when the jeep carrying Harry Carter turned in through the gates of the great Moorish villa called dar el Ouad outside Algiers, and braked to a halt at the ornate, arched entrance.
‘Wait for me,’ Carter told the driver and went up the steps past the sentries.
In the cool, dark hall inside, a young captain in summer uniform sat at a desk working on some papers. The plaque in front of him said, Captain George Cusak. He glanced up at Carter, noted the uniform, the crowns on his shoulder, the purple and white ribbon of the Military Cross with a silver rosette for a second award, and stood up.
‘What can I do for you, Major?’
Carter produced his pass. ‘I think you’ll find General Eisenhower is expecting me.’
The captain examined the pass briefly and nodded. ‘Ten minutes to go, Major. If you’ll take a seat, I’ll tell him you’re here.’
Harry Carter walked out on to the terrace through the open french windows and sat down in one of the wickerwork chairs. After a moment’s hesitation he took out an old silver case from his breast pocket and selected a cigarette.
He was forty-two, of medium height, a handsome man with a calm, pleasant face which always seemed about to break into a smile, but never quite made it. And he suited the uniform to perfection which was surprising for he was the second son of a prosperous Yorkshire mill-owner, a scholar by nature, educated at Leeds Grammar School until thirteen and then Winchester. From there he had absconded in 1917, joining the Army under a false age, serving the last eighteen months of the First World War as an infantry private on the Western Front.
Afterwards came Cambridge and a brilliant academic career which had included spells at Harvard as visiting Professor of Greek Archaeology, the University of Florence and then a return to Cambridge as a Fellow of Trinity and Claverhouse Professor of Ancient History at thirty-five.
