In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers.

But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA

was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife.

Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family?

When lies are still being told to this day, who do you believe?

I wouldn't even know where to start, and I'm with the IRA.

Steakknife.

Listen first on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

Hello, I'm Harriet Gilbert.

Thank you for downloading a good read, the podcasts,

where two guests and I recommend books we love and describe why we love them.

We don't always see eye to eye, but I hope you'll find some great reading suggestions here.

With me today, the author Alexander McCall-Smith,

whose novels include the number one ladies' detective agency series,

the Scotland Street novels, the Sunday Philosophy Club novels,

a whole wealth of standalone books, and books for children, libretti and radio plays.

Just this autumn, he's brought out a new Mara Motswe novel called How to Raise an Elephant

and his first poetry collection in a time of distance. With Alexander is the physics professor,

solar researcher and avid science communicator Lucy Green, a Royal Society University Research Fellow

based at UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory,

Lucy's TV and radio credits include presenting the sky at night and inside science,

...