Frederick Forsyth · 1991 · thriller

Frederick Forsyth's 1991 book, four cases told as evidence at a hearing. Sam McCready, head of Deception and Psychological Operations, is being retired because the Cold War is over and men like him are an embarrassment - and his defence consists of what he actually did, in East Germany, the Caribbean, Libya and on the night the Wall came down.

1. 1
   Berlin

   A Soviet officer offers to come across with the Red Army's war plans, and McCready has to decide in hours whether the man is genuine or a plant - a judgement made on instinct and a cigarette lighter, with a career riding on it.

2. 2
   London

   At Century House the new management want deception operations wound up and its head pensioned off, and the hearing that frames the book is really an argument about whether the trade he practised was ever respectable.

3. 3
   The Caribbean

   On a small British island approaching independence, two candidates are running and one fronts for people from the mainland - and a governor is shot, turning a colonial formality into something McCready must fix quietly.

4. 4
   Tripoli

   A Libyan arms shipment is on its way to the IRA and cannot be intercepted without revealing the source - so it is dealt with by persuading the people expecting it that somebody else has already stolen it.