Shoelace, a Paper Clip and a Pencil

Tom Cooper, a university senior academic, is on holiday in the south of France with his wife, Liz. Whilst having early evening drinks with the owners of the beautiful eighteenth-century small chateau where they are staying, he relates two strange incidents in which he was involved earlier in his life – one in Bonn in the mid-70s and the other in Belfast in the mid-80s. Having always thought these incidents were completely unrelated, comments by Dann – one of the owners and a former international journalist – lead him to consider they maybe, after all, connected in some way – especially given it transpired Tom was the virtual double of a known provisional IRA activist. Tom and Liz start a new journey in their life, trying to piece together the links, at first focusing on the contents of the briefcase left with Tom in Bonn. What unfolds is a chain of events which eventually threaten Tom’s life as well as Liz’s. Newly made friends are not who they seem to be and they encounter more strange, and dangerous, episodes as they pursue the truth about those events. Someone, or some people do not want them to discover that truth and try everything to ensure they don’t. From being hunters, Tom and Liz are now the hunted. They wonder if this nightmare will ever come to an end.

Tom Cooper, un universitar universitar, este in vacanta in sudul Frantei, impreuna cu sotia sa, Liz. In timp ce bea bauturi seara devreme cu proprietarii frumosului mic castel din secolul al XVIII-lea unde stau, el relateaza doua intamplari ciudate in care a fost implicat mai devreme in viata sa - unul la Bonn la mijlocul anilor 70 si celalalt la Belfast in mijlocul anilor 80.