In the autumn of 1968 Donald Crowhurst set out from teignmouth in devon in his untested trimarin, a competitor in the first singlehanded non-stop around-the-world race. Eight months later, the boat was found in mid-Atlantic, in calm waters and structurally intact, but with no one on board, Through Crowhurst's logs and diaries the world learned that, although he had radioed messages from his supposed round-the-world course, he had in fact never left the Altlantic. In this book, the authors reconstruct the story of what might have happened to the lone sailor; they guess at Crowhurst's growing distrust of his boat; his decision to attempt one of the greatest hoaxes of our time; his 11-week radio silence; the secret visit to Argentina for repairs; the lying radio tranmissions; the "triumphal" return up the Atlaantic as the elapsed-time race leader; the increasing isolation wrought by his deception; and the fantastic ending. The authors present a psychological casebook of human zeal and anguish by means of a suspenseful narrative.