As 25-year old WPC Yvonne Fletcher lay mortally wounded, having been shot from within the Libyan People’s Bureau in London on 17 April 1984, her friend and fellow police officer John Murray promised he would see those responsible brought to justice. That promise would take him 37 years to fulfil, during which time he uncovered a startling web of intrigue involving big business, politicians and our intelligence agencies. This is his story.

Two weeks after WPC Fletcher’s tragic death, all those present inside the Bureau, including everyone suspected of involvement in the attack, were deported from the UK. Men guilty of terrorism and murder were neither arrested nor prosecuted.

In writing John Murray’s story, Matt Johnson has identified UK government duplicity, secret service deals and how a plan to finally defeat the all-powerful National Union of Mineworkers would place the government in an invidious position when pro- and anti-Gaddafi elements brought their fight to the streets of the UK. He has discovered why, in 1984, Yvonne Fletcher's killers were allowed to go free. His extensive research also reveals how events on 17 April resulted in a 30-year government campaign to bring the police services of the UK under political control, a campaign that has driven our police service into the state of disarray we see today.

'All the ingredients of a Le Carre novel, only it's real.' — Matthew Hall, crimewriter and screenwriter (Keeping Faith)