WHO KILLED SIR HARRY OAKES by James Leasor

‘The story has all the right ingredients – rich occupants of a West Indian tax haven, corruption, drugs, the Mafia, and a weak character as governor.’ Daily Mail

James Leasor cleverly reconstructs events surrounding a brutal and unusual murder. It is 1943 and Sir Harry Oakes lies horrifically murdered at his Bahamian mansion. Although a self-made multi-millionaire, Sir Harry is an unlikely victim – there are no suggestions of jealousy or passion. Leasor makes the daring suggestion that Sir Harry Oakes’ murder, the burning of the liner Normandie in New York Harbour in 1942 and the Allied landings in Sicily are all somehow connected.

It was made into a major TV mini-series in 1989, called ‘Passion and Paradise’, starring Armand Assante, Catherine Mary Stewart, Mariette Hartley and Kevin McCarthy, with Rod Steiger playing Sir Harry Oakes.