THE WHITE LIE ASSIGNMENT

British news photographer Michael Mannis lends his services to the Ministry of Defence when his shutter finger is needed to confirm the existence of System V, a missile installation the Chinese are rumored to have begun building in Albania. An amateur at the spy game, Mannis is one of those sensitive types who are made physically ill by the betrayals and bloodshed which ensue. A pedestrian whopper of an assignment by the author of The Wilby Conspiracy and In Connection with Kilshaw--though you wouldn't know it.