This is the pitch for my novel, which is with a publisher at the moment, so I have my fingers crossed. Anybody on the forum is welcome to a free copy on ebook; just pm me your email. If you spot any mistakes or anything which could be improved you will recieve a credit within the book as one of the proof readers. I don't think it is a work of great literature just a fun page turner and hopefully a best seller ;-)
The Savage Heart of Palermo is a fast paced crime thriller, with dark humour and an upbeat love story. It tells the tale of Joe Kelly, a young Irish-Italian-American, who flees from the States to Palermo, the traditional heartland of the Mafia.

Joe's mother was Sicilian, but she was killed in a botched mugging when he was very young. Coming to Sicily is a way for him to feel close to her and discover a little about who she was.

He is escaping from a troubled past in a poor crime ridden district of Chicago. He has stolen a considerable amount of money from an extremely dangerous pusher and is wanted for questioning by the police in relation to a burglary that he did not commit.

Coming down from drugs and desperate to turn his life around completely, he donates half of this money to charity and uses the rest to set up his new life on what he thinks will be a Mediterranean paradise.

Soon enough, he discovers that Palermo is no easier than the place he ran away from. After almost two decades of relative quiet the Mafia is once again ready to rear its ugly head in Palermo. This new breed of Cosa Nostra is not entirely like the cool calculated one we all remember from the Godfather.

Due to competition from Palermo's immigrant gangs it has been forced to adapt. In order to make its presence felt it has adopted a more gung-ho approach to violence. Joe realizes that he has arrived right in the middle of a new Mafia war, in which two rival crime families fight bitterly for supremacy.

He witnesses a young man shot dead in a public place in front of his girlfriend. But without a stay-permit and wanted for questioning by the police in America he is forced to bite his tongue and remain hidden in the shadows.

Joe knows that he has relatives on his mother's side that live near Palermo. He arranges to meet them for the first time and an attraction is immediately sparked between himself and his second cousin, the young, intelligent, and beautiful Rossella.

He makes friends with Moses, a charismatic African man, who talks him into investing in his small-time hash business. It all starts off harmlessly enough but soon things get out of hand and Joe finds himself involved in things much worse than anything he had run away from.

On top of that, he is falling in love with a woman that he thinks he can't have; Rossella is related to him and she has a boyfriend. Rossella's boyfriend, Francesco Fortunato, is a womanising bully who treats her very badly.

She begins to spend more and more time with Joe. Together they delve into his past, discuss the reasons he came to Palermo and his hopes for the future. Inevitably, they become close and finally she leaves Francesco to be with him.

Things are further complicated when the drug-dealers that Joe ripped off, in America, pay Joe's dad a visit. They break into his Chicago tenement apartment and beat him in order to find out Joe's whereabouts. Joe's father refuses to speak, but one of the goons sees a cell-phone on the kitchen table. When he goes through it, he finds a message from Joe, revealing his location.

Francesco Fortunato turns out to be one of the Mafiosi involved in the murder that Joe witnessed. He finds out about Joe and Rossella. Now they have two reasons to eliminate him.

Joe has been doing business with the rival crime family and by this point the war is spiralling out of control.

The ripped off American goons arrive in Palermo and try to kill Joe. Joe is saved by a Mafioso with whom he does business. He now finds himself locked into a 'life debt'. Later he is asked to do murder in order to repay this debt.

Joe discovers that the girlfriend of the young man he saw murdered is pregnant.

With Rossella by his side, he is faced with a dangerous moral dilemma and has to decide on the correct course of action.

All this is against the backdrop of a beautiful historical city full of contrasts. Palermo has a wild and savage heart. It is also a city subject to change. The influx of immigrants from Bangladesh, Africa, and eastern Europe creates a cultural melting pot that adds an entirely new dimension to a capital steeped in traditional Sicilian culture. This book addresses some of the very real racial issues that Italy faces today.

The Savage Heart of Palermo is a journey that explores a person's desire and struggle to change. It explores the phenomenon of conscience and the real meaning between right and wrong. For Joe, it is a journey of self discovery in which he learns again to feel love and to treasure and protect that which is important in life and to reject that which is detrimental.

The characters, places and events in this book will stay with the reader for a long time.