Re: Dark Conspiracy-like novels
Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2019 5:03 pm
Not a novel, but a non-fiction book: Open Verdict by Tony Collins. Long out of print paperback about a series of 25 deaths of people connected with the UK defence industry in the 1980s. I believe they're known as the "Marconi suicides". Taken together they present sufficient anomalies to make those of a conspiratorial turn of mind suspect that something very sinister has been going on. Collins doesn't really reach any firm conclusions which is perhaps understandable given the lack of detail in the public arena, some of it plainly down to official obstruction. Less forgiveable is his writing style which is quite dull, lacking in coherence and often repetitive - especially when he gets onto the subject of electronic warfare and the then looming conflict between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Rather got the impression the book was cobbled together from a series of magazine articles (the author is former executive editor of Computer Weekly which I gather orginally broke the story in 1987).
Some of the deaths were of GCHQ staff who are a local employer in my part of the world. Aside from the spy-in-the-bag case there have been quite a few other staff members who've come to sticky ends, drowned in the bath or died in auto-erotic asphyxiation accidents. Makes you wonder if the management there is a tad heavy handed when it comes to disciplinary matters.
Some of the deaths were of GCHQ staff who are a local employer in my part of the world. Aside from the spy-in-the-bag case there have been quite a few other staff members who've come to sticky ends, drowned in the bath or died in auto-erotic asphyxiation accidents. Makes you wonder if the management there is a tad heavy handed when it comes to disciplinary matters.