The first six chapters of “The Traitor” are available to read on-line. Copies of the book can be purchased from LuLu.com : ISBN  978 1 4092 9076 6       (please click on the image) Based on “Superior Force” the acclaimed study of the escape of Goeben and Breslau The Traitor is firmly grounded in fact. The majority of the people referred to in the novel took part in the actions described. Many of the conversations are based on diary entries, memoranda and letters subsequently published by the main protagonists. The principal exception to this is the character of Major Lionel Samson. When he first appears, Samson is, as he was in fact at the time, the British Military Consul at the siege of Adrianople in 1913. By 1915 he was, in real life, in charge of the allied espionage network based in Athens. However, between these two dates, all actions ascribed to him in The Traitor are fictional. On the other hand, the other main character, Admiral Mark Kerr is portrayed throughout as he was during the period. His actions, however implausible, are firmly based on the research gathered for my non-fiction studies of the events of this period, Superior Force, Straits and The Millstone.

Please feel free to read this novel but note that all rights are reserved and that no part of this publication may be further reproduced by any means without the prior permission of the author, Geoffrey Miller, who has asserted his right in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

Contents and Design  Copyright 2015 Geoffrey Miller

Contact Information Telephone     01262 850943     International: + 44 1262 850943      Postal address     The Manor House,     Flamborough,     Bridlington,     East Riding of Yorkshire,  YO15 1PD     England. E-mail     gm@resurgambooks.co.uk

THEME During the first week of August, 1914, Admiral Mark Kerr faced a desperate choice: betray his conscience or his country. It was a choice he faced in real life, where his attempt to reconcile the competing demands of his service to Britain and Greece failed. Major Lionel Samson’s principal experience of betrayal stemmed from a more personal encounter: an affair which ends when fate (according to Edith Roberts) intervenes. The sense of loss — and betrayal — Samson feels is heightened as, at that time, he does not believe in fate, or the pre- ordained workings of some exterior force, either for good or evil. Forced to reconsider his own deeply held beliefs, Samson is also disillusioned when everyone he encounters in Athens appears to operate on two different levels, and betrayal, at both personal and official levels, is rampant. Professor Geroulanos, for example, while certainly calling himself a Greek patriot, belongs to an organization whose only aim is the furtherance of German influence in his country (another example of the activities of a real-life character being mirrored in The Traitor). Even within the confines of the British Legation Samson comes to suspect that senior officials are hiding something. And, finally, the agent he employs is also working for someone else. Samson is forced to consider the prospect that the ability to betray, to lie at will, is part of man’s nature. Then, however, his life is saved by the same Professor Geroulanos he suspects of treason; his closest ally within the Legation is converted to share his suspicion regarding the Greek Premier; and his own agent, the Greek porter, posthumously provides the evidence to help resolve the final part of the puzzle — the identity of the traitor. Samson is almost re-converted into disbelieving the workings of a malign fate until a moment’s cowardice, which he later excuses by reasoning it was pre-ordained, results in his final test. CHARACTERIZATION With only a few exceptions, all the characters portrayed in The Traitor are based on their real-life counterparts. There is so much material on Churchill, in particular, that it is possible to reconstruct his activities and conversations on an almost daily basis. All the Greek characters (Premier Venizelos, King Constantine, Professor Geroulanos, the investigator Triantafyllakos, the porter at the German Legation) are portrayed as they were, as are such other notables as Sir Edward Grey and Prince Louis of Battenberg. The principle deviation from this is the character of Major Samson. Physically he appears in the novel as he did in real life; however his actions for the period involved (March 1913 to August 1914) are completely fictional. Similarly, the activities in the novel of the real-life German agent, Captain Alfred Hoffmann, are fictional. Edith Roberts and Rachel Summers are also wholly fictional characters.

Chapter 1 The Disappearance Chapter 2 Rusa Bay Chapter 3 Salonica Chapter 4 Whitehall Chapter 5 The Enchantress Chapter 6 Avret Hissar Chapter 7 Scutari Chapter 8 The Secret Meeting Chapter 9 The Offer Chapter 10 The Pension Merlin Chapter 11 The Stooped Man Chapter 12 Professor Geroulanos Chapter 13 The Missing Report Chapter 14 The Greek Colonel Chapter 15 Visarionos Street Chapter 16 A Death Chapter 17 The Asylum Chapter 18 Motives Chapter 19 An Intruder Chapter 20 The Piraeus Chapter 21 The Fatal Meeting Chapter 22 Allegiances Chapter 23 The Journey Chapter 24 Naval Matters Chapter 25 A New Beginning Chapter 26 The Notebook Chapter 27 Departure Chapter 28 Constantinople Chapter 29 The Banquet Chapter 30 Return to Athens Chapter 31 The Adramyti Plan Chapter 32 War Chapter 33 Bogados Chapter 34 Messina Chapter 35 The Traitor Chapter 36 The Last Letter