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Larry Alexander

Larry Alexander

  • From New York Times bestselling author Larry Alexander comes a gritty historical novel of World War II, told through the eyes of soldiers on both sides of the firing line.

    Tarawa was hell but Saipan is worse.

    For Sergeant Pete “Hardball” Talbot, recently returned from being wounded on Tarawa seven months earlier, Saipan is just another battle as the United States leaps island to island towards an invasion of the Japanese homeland.

    But the Japanese have learned, all too well, how to defend their islands, with carefully constructed and concealed bunkers and machine gun nests. Talbot and the dozen men of Second Squad have no idea they are running headlong into thirty-five thousand Japanese soldiers who have sworn to fight to the last man.

    In vivid, startling detail, Shattered Jade explores the strategy and horror of battle in one of World War II’s most brutal conflicts and illuminates the extraordinary courage of ordinary young men.

  • The gripping historical novel of the invasion of Tarawa by US Marines in World War II, from bestselling author, journalist, and historian Larry Alexander.

    The island of Tarawa, a tiny spit of sand out in the middle of the Pacific, teemed with five hundred pillboxes filled with artillery pieces and highly motivated Japanese soldiers. Their commanding officer encouraged his troops, saying, “It would take one million men one hundred years” to conquer Tarawa. They were convinced that the Americans would be slaughtered before they ever got ashore.

    Private Pete “Hardball” Talbot was one of the US Marines tasked with taking the island. A cocky, tough street kid from Philadelphia, Pete joined up to escape his abusive father. In his mind, nothing the Japanese could throw at him could be as bad as what his father dished out. He was angry, and more than willing to take it out on the enemy. But once he climbed over the side and into the landing craft, and once the Japanese artillery and machine guns opened up in defense of the island, Pete knew this was going to be different. It would take all his training, and all his street smarts to stay alive while those around him got blown to bits.

    Despite Japanese predictions, it took the United States Marines seventy-six hours to take Tarawa. It was a walk in the park … if the park were in the middle of hell itself.