The Stalker Affair

Stalker is the former deputy chief of the Greater Manchester police who, in 1984, was sent to Northern Ireland by the British government to investigate the killing of six unarmed Catholic men by officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). The killings, unrelated incidents that occurred in 1982, provoked questioning and controversy, the prime allegation being that RUC had a ""shoot to kill'' policy in the ambushes of suspected members of the IRA. Even as Stalker narrates the chronology of his two-year-quest in Belfast, ``the story still twists and turns.'' What emerges clearly is that Stalker, a highly regarded professional and skilled investigator, was deliberately frustrated and obstructed the closer he came to the revelation of scandal, coverup by the RUC and out-of-control policemen. When he was summarily dismissed on grounds of consorting with a suspected criminal, Stalker, who had recommended prosecution of eight RUC officers, attracted the attention of the media. This book, currently a cause celebre in England and Ireland, vividly details the failure of truth and justice in the jungle of Northern Ireland politics. (May)