Alistair MacLean · 1982 · thriller

Alistair MacLean's 1982 WWII thriller. Major Peter Petersen leaves Rome with a mixed band of Yugoslavs and a sealed envelope, bound across the Adriatic for his shattered homeland. Through Pescara, Ploce and the Neretva gorges to the mountains of Bosnia, nobody's loyalties are what they seem - and Petersen must unmask the traitor among his own.

1. 1
   Rome

   In Rome, the sardonic Yugoslav agent Peter Petersen collects his orders, his sealed envelope and his oddly assorted travelling companions - and sets out for a homeland torn three ways between Partisans, Chetniks and Ustase.

2. 2
   Pescara

   At the Adriatic port of Pescara the party boards an Italian torpedo boat for the night crossing - and in the cramped cabins the shadow play begins, as papers are rifled and each traveller quietly takes the measure of the others.

3. 3
   Ploce

   They land at Italian-held Ploce on the Dalmatian coast, where Petersen's apparent collaboration with the occupiers deepens the suspicion of his companions - and where the first of them shows a hand that does not match the story.

4. 4
   Mostar

   Inland through the Neretva gorges to Mostar, the little column climbs into a country of ambush and reprisal, where a wrong word to the wrong patrol is fatal and the war has curdled into a three-cornered blood feud.

5. 5
   Bihac

   High in the Bosnian mountains at last, among Tito's Partisans, Petersen's true allegiance and the identity of the traitor he has carried with him all the way are finally laid bare.