This is a chilling book. In the prologue an English MP is asking a question in the House of Commons concerning the official betrayal of a SOE network in occupied France thirty years before, during World War 2. The first part of the book describes the setting up, operations and eventual demise of the network. The second part follows the investigation set in motion after the MP's question by a SIS agent not, it becomes plain, to shed light on the matter but rather to ensure that the true facts are buried as securely as the official records which, we are told are walled up deep in a disused Welsh coal mine.

I was drawn to Allbeury's work after reading a review of The Twentieth Day of January, a 'what-if' story of a US President-Elect who has won power with the covert support of Soviet Russia. This has to be a work of imagination even if the events surrounding the election of the 45th President make one wonder if it is entirely far-fetched. I heard an interview with the author, who had been a serving Intelligence officer, in which he was asked if his former masters objected to his writing. His response was that he was told he could write what he liked as long as it was described as fiction. I think most of Allbeury's stories were about the Cold War making this one unusual. To me, it rings horribly true. Military commanders always know that any operations will result in casualties - there is a quote from Field Marshal Montgomery to the effect that he expected 30,000 fatalities on the first day of the battle of El Alamein - but somehow the cold-blooded betrayal of a group of men for some perceived greater good is harder to swallow.

This book is well worth reading by anyone with an interest in the period. ( )