Liaty Pisani
La spia e il poeta

Published by Diogenes as Der Spion und der Dichter
English Title: The Spy And the Poet

In the person of Ogden, Liaty Pisani has created a spy with a fatal weakness: he has a conscience. Nevertheless, he is assigned to the most difficult and delicate missions because of his intelligence and the speed with which he works. Ogden’s work is his family: as foster-son of a secret service boss, he is familiar with the morals and manners of the world of top secret information. This does not, however, protect him from unpleasant surprises. Ogden, a good-natured spy who works for an independent secret service organisation, is tired of secret machinations and sordid affairs and would like best of all to chuck in his job. As if the loss of his sweetheart during his last assignment were not enough, his latest mission is connected with the search for a cd-rom containing information about a civilian aircraft with 81 passengers which was shot down over the Mediterranean, and the reasons for and instigators of the catastrophe. Secret service organisations all over the world are keen to keep the facts covered up and let the perpetrators of the crime go unpunished. Ogden is disgusted by the whole affair. But a spy is a spy, and Ogden has acquired a wealth of experience during the course of his career. He sees but one possibility: to follow the dictates of his conscience and to make sure that the criminals are punished, using a method frequently employed by members of the secret service: he questions people with supernatural abilities. Ogden takes the confused warning from the hereafter received by the writer Queriand seriously. But clear statements are a long time in coming, and meanwhile, the lives of the living are at stake.

Quotes