The Deceiver is a novel by English writer Frederick Forsyth, about a retiring agent of the British SIS named Sam McCready.
[1] It is discreetly explained to the Chief of British Intelligence that, in the new atmosphere of détente, and the warming of relations with the Soviet Union, that the SIS's role will have to be redefined, and some of its more aggressive agents will have to be taught a lesson.
As a favour to his old friend, and in stark violation of his BND employment rules, Morenz agrees to enter East Germany, where he manages to get hold of the documents.
He is, however, on the verge of nervous collapse due to earlier events in West Germany, where he had been having an affair with a prostitute who later insulted him, which led to him killing her and her pimp boyfriend.
Keepsake claims that Orlov is not a defector, but a plant, tasked with denouncing the CIA's Deputy Director (Operations), Calvin Bailey, as a Soviet mole in an attempt to bring chaos and distrust to the entire agency.
Events accelerate when Orlov finally succeeds, indirectly, in identifying the supposed CIA traitor, followed by Keepsake suddenly departing for Moscow, making it look as if Sam is wrong.
The SIS uncovers evidence that Libya is preparing to ship a consignment of arms for the use of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and other European terrorist groups.
Sam McCready recruits an ex-SAS soldier-turned-novelist named Tom Rowse, to pose as a weapons' buyer, thinly veiled by his pretending to be undertaking research for a new novel.
The island is about to hold its first election for Prime Minister, and, since no political parties have yet developed the two leading candidates are both expatriates, with no financial backing or popular support from the population.
It takes some quick thinking on McCready's part to apprehend the criminals, and forge a document to appoint himself Governor for a day – but he is able to foil both candidates' schemes, and ensures that the Barclayan transition to independence will be smooth.
The Florida law enforcement officer agent finally succeeds in catching his partner's killer in the smuggler's house, but Scotland Yard are unable to arrest the person who killed the governor.
McCready figures out that the murder was committed by an elderly expatriate American lady, with the purpose of attracting the authorities and the press to the island to deal with the candidates' criminal campaign workers.
In Forsyth's subsequent novel, The Fist of God, taking place during the Persian Gulf War, the Americans and British become suddenly (even comically) aware of the inadequacy of these approaches in giving them real insight into Saddam Hussein's true intentions, and begin searching desperately for a way to infiltrate the Iraqi regime with a living agent.