The Social Magus

Everyone knows UK general elections aren't what they used to be. British politics - Westminster in particular - is mired in an integrity crisis. Enter Real Alternative, a bold new party with a youthful, charismatic leader and a radical manifesto. True, it stands to win very few seats, but what really matters is that it has galvanised the young and apathetic. And it apparently has the establishment running scared.

Yet there may be more to it than meets the eye. For a start, who's funding it? No one quite knows. If its backers are foreign, that would constitute a clear breach of electoral commission rules - which would please a lot of people in Whitehall.

Agent John Mordred is assigned to investigate. And what looks at first like a routine probe soon becomes anything but.