Nick Hellyer Espionage

Nick Hellyer is an accidental spy. Expelled in disgrace from Cambridge, he is hurled into the contradictory and vibrant city of Alexandria as Egypt heads towards the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. His double life as a secret agent mirrors the duplicities of his relationships with contacts and lovers. But when he stumbles on a war-changing secret, who can he trust not to betray or abandon him? "Lying for your country, Hellyer. Not as a diplomat - that takes years to perfect - but as someone undercover, someone who's not as they seem."

Nick Hellyer faces the spy's ultimate dilemma. He is tasked to infiltrate a chemical weapons program and destroy it. But in the process, lives will be lost. His struggles with issues of complicity and guilt are set against a background of the guerrilla insurgency in Mozambique and the army plan to overthrow the Portuguese dictatorship in 1974. He succeeds in aligning himself with the coup plotters and participates in the virtually bloodless overthrow of the government. However, the tally of other deaths associated with him continues to pile up.