Requiem for a Spy: The Killing of Robert Nairac

This is an interesting work about the killing of Robert Nairac, an undercover officer who served with the SAS in Northern Ireland. The book describes in detail how Nairac was killed by a drunken local mob and then executed in a lonely field by a card carrying member of the IRA. While this book seeks to explain the background of the killing, the author uses the story line as a platform to indict the British government and their war in Northern Ireland. The author raises questions about Nairac's sexual preferences and builds a case arguing that Nairac was a cog in the British's terror operations. Nairac is exposed as participating in the illegal killings of Irish citizens and actively aiding loyalist terrorists like the Ulster Defense Association. The reader comes away with the understanding that Nairac, ultimately, reaped what he had sown and was no better than the men who actually killed him. The author, quite obviously, is no friend of Britain and uses the book to expose the murders, war crimes, and other atrocities sanctioned by the British state in their war against the IRA. In fact, the author spends more time flaying Britain than he does addressing the Nairac murder. Overall, a good read on the subject for a reasonable price. I would have rated this work higher had the author been a little more balanced in his approach and if he did not resort to shakespearian like prose as he was want to on several occasions.