The Birds of Prey

The Birds of Prey

Novel , 1977

Harper’s Collins / Bruguera

The scene is set in France and its colony, Reunion Island. On 9 March 1968 a DC6 aircraft carrying General Ailleret, Chief of the French General Staff, his wife and entourage, crashed on take off from Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. The only survivor was an air hostess. This is historical fact. The crash was variously attributed to an excessive fuel load (for the long leg to Djibouti) or possibly some over-indulgence on the part of some members of the crew who had not expected – and did not wish – to fly that night.

Charles Stone becomes obsessed with the life and death of General Ailleret. He comes to think that something quite different caused the fatal crash. He wants to know the truth. In the game he has embarked on – the exposé he is attempting – against the military/political hierarchy of France, Stone is soon in deep trouble. Indeed he does not understand the game, though he scents and hunts the evil in it.