Artillery of Lies — Derek Robinson

1943. British Intelligence has finally got to grips with the Eldorado Network, Germany's most successful spy ring. It turns out to be one man in a small room in Lisbon, inventing phoney (but convincing) reports. For two years he has pulled the wool over German Intelligence's eyes, and made a killing.

The British soon find that Eldorado's a real handful. They bring him to England, so they can manage his dispatches, and discover that living with a genius can be a headache. Eldorado rapidly creates a team of top sub-agents around him. None of them exists. But power - even imaginary power - is intoxicating, and he begins to treat his fake sub-agents as if real. Big trouble ahead.

Artillery of Lies is the hair-raising sequel to The Eldorado Network, all the more funny for being soundly based on the true story of a real Second World War spy.