The Shepherd: It is Christmas Eve 1957. Flying home, on leave from Germany, he is alone in the cockpit of The Vampire. Then, out over the North Sea, the fog begins to close in. Radio contact ceases and the compass goes haywire. Suddenly, out of the mist, appears a WWII bomber, flying just below The Vampire, as if trying to make contact. The Odessa File: The life and death hunt for a notorious Nazi criminal unfolds against a background of international arms deals.

Forsyth presents five brilliantly ingenious tales of murder, justice, intrigue and revenge. A miracle in war-torn Siena, a drug smuggling heist on an international flight, a brutal urban murder, an incandescent art scam and the brilliant novella 'Whispering Wind'