The Cut-Out

REVIEWS: “Breathtaking, compelling, intensely personal throughout – and terrifyingly true – The Cut-Out is probably the most important spy novel I’ve ever read.” Richard Collins, Onside Review. “This really is a remarkable story, brilliantly told. For the first time I can now understand exactly how and why Princess Diana could have been murdered.” G.E. Harrison, Amazon UK. “A must read … this book will make its mark on history.” David Damano, Amazon US. _____________________________________LOGLINE: When the American called me up and said he wanted to talk, I never imagined he would tell me what he did: that someone of global renown, “within days from now”, would be assassinated. Why tell me? A low-key conspiracy journalist? I didn’t know. And quite frankly, I didn’t believe him, either—until the assassination happened… SYNOPSIS: Britain in the nineties was obsessed with the X-Files. The high street was awash with X-Files type magazines, and as senior editor of the biggest selling one on the market, I was accustomed to receiving phone calls from anonymous sources promising inside information. So when the American called me up and said he wanted to talk, I took it in my stride. Why wouldn’t I? He was a former Special Forces Green Beret, he said. A CIA runner. He also said that the information he had was best not divulged over the telephone. So we arranged to meet. Nothing unusual in that. What was unusual, though, was what the American told me, not at our first meeting, but at a subsequent one some months later. On this occasion he said he'd been made aware of an imminent prime-target assassination, that “one of the most prominent figures on the world stage” was about to be taken out, “within days from now”. He added: “The media will tell you it was an accident. You’ll know it wasn’t.” I came away not knowing if I’d been fed a line or let in on the world’s most terrible secret. And I had no way of finding out, either, other than to wait, and watch the news. I didn’t have to wait long. Because a week later the “accident” the American had alluded to was all over the news: the assassination he’d told me about had happened. Or so I believed.Of course, at this stage I had no idea I was being set up as a ‘cut-out’ by a ruthless and shadowy department within MI6. All I knew was that I’d been told something I wished I’d never been told. And that, because I had, the biggest, most terrifying ordeal of my life was about to unfold... _____________________________________Set mainly in London and Paris, The Cut-Out is an autobiographical spy novel of immense personal ordeal and chilling consequence. It is based on a true story.