The Leader and the Damned is a 1983 spy thriller/secret history novel by Colin Forbes, set on the background of Nazi Germany in the later part of World War II.

[1] The book is based on the assumption that Adolf Hitler was assassinated by dissident Wehrmacht officers who planted a bomb in his plane in March 1943.

The only one to discover the deception was Wing Commander Ian Lindsay, a dashing British pilot who managed to penetrate Hitler's headquarters.

The bulk of the book's plot depicts Lindsay's efforts to escape with his vital information, fleeing through Germany, Austria and Yugoslavia, one step ahead of the Gestapo, the SS and the Abwehr - virtually alone except for two courageous and highly capable women who risked all for his sake.

Unknown to Lindsay, even if he eludes the Nazis, the Soviet secret services are also plotting his death, at the personal order of Joseph Stalin.