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. This is the BBC.

Hello, today we journey from the Golden Age of Crime to Manchester Noir, looking into a series

of Twilight Worlds. Stella Duffy fills us in on completing Dame Naio Marsh's abandoned novel.

Ryan Gattis elaborates on John Fante's LA classic Ask the Dust, and we poke around Gabriel Garcia-Marquez's literary archive.

But first, to the midnight streets of Manchester for a sinister detection.

At the far side of the room was the solid, immovable silhouette of a man.

He was sitting in a chair facing the window. He didn't respond as I drew

closer and I felt a cold sweat itching out from my scalp. I wiped my face with my forearm,

eyes not leaving the shape. As I came alongside him, I saw that he was dead. His own sweat was glazed across his skin,

and I thought I could feel the heat pouring out of him. He looked well-groomed for a midnight intruder,

cleanly shaven with a sharp haircut. I stopped when I saw that his eyes were wide open.

They were cobalt blue and staring into the next life

like he was done with this one.

It was his teeth that sent me out of the room, though.

The muscles in his mouth had contracted viciously

and locked into a wide, wincing grin.

The discovery of a gruesome joker kicks off the second thriller from Joseph Knox, whose debut sirens was a surprise bestseller.

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