The Assets

by Ted Allbeury

Ted Allbeury's latest novel concerns the potentially explosive topic of MK Ultra, the most secret operation in the CIA. MK Ultra is concerned with the use of mind-control under the influence of hypnosis and, sometimes, drugs. The problems started when the CIA ruled out the use of volunteers in these experiements because volunteers would give a false picture of the effects of the drug and could distort the effects of the hypnosis. As always, Ted Allbeury uses the facts splendidly in his novel, which tells of the disturbing, terrifying and sometimes tragic human consequences of these experiments. His hero, Senator Joe Maguire, is a fundamentally decent man whose unenviable task it is to monitor the goings-on of MK Ultra and to pick up the pieces when things go horribly wrong. As they do. THE ASSETS raises disturbing issues and ethical dilemmas to which there are no easy answers.

The most consistently inventive of our novelists of espionage, the one other thriller writers point to as the finest craftsman among them - Guardian

His characters, regardless of which side they're on, are always humanely portrayed and utterly plausible - Scotsman

No one picks through the intelligence maze with more authority or humanity than Allbeury - The Sunday Times

Mr Allbeury is a writer of espionage tales that often soar far above the genre - New Yorker

Ted Allbeury was a lieutenant-colonel in the Intelligence Corps during World War II, and later a successful executive in the fields of marketing, advertising and radio. He has been writing since the early 1970s, and his novels have now been published in 23 languages, including Russian.