The death of the controversial newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell provided material for one of the great conspiracy theories of the late 20th century. It seemed impossible that the ageing tycoon, overweight and unfit, could have tumbled over the high railings of his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine. Not only were the complex finances of his vast global empire about to come tumbling down, but there was also the small matter of Maxwell's decades-long involvement with Mossad, Israel's feared secret service. There has been much rumour and innuendo over exactly how far Maxwell's involvement went. He was never slow in publicising the part he played in international politics, enabling thousands of Eastern European Jews to emigrate to Israel, but Thomas and Dillon have traced Maxwell's meetings with specific individuals at specific places to show exactly how deep in he was. Just like the far-fetched plot of a spy thriller, we learn about a software programme stolen by Israel and then modified to include a 'trapdoor' so that the users could be spied on which, through one of Maxwell's subsidiary companies, was then sold to intelligence agencies all over the world, who went on to use the software, without realizing that Israel's secret service was monitoring their every move. Because of his high-level dealings with heads of government, and the ease with which he was able to move between countries, even those behind the Iron Curtain, the tycoon was privy to all kinds of sensitive information. But when his empire began to crumble, he became vulnerable. The millions of pounds that were moving around his impenetrable network of companies had come, in part, from sources whose legitimacy was questionable, and his behaviour, always volatile, had become erratic and unpredictable. Mossad therefore took the decision to assassinate him to protect themselves. You will finish reading this tightly written and well researched book with the sense that, whatever the verdict of the courts on Robert Maxwell's death, the true story has yet to be revealed.
