The Tailor of Panama

Harry Pendel, a charming and somewhat unreliable bespoke tailor in Panama City, lives a life of carefully constructed lies. His past is shady, his present is precarious, and his future depends on maintaining a delicate balance of deceit. Enter Andrew Osnard, a cynical, disreputable, yet dangerously effective British spy exiled to Panama for past indiscretions. Osnard sees in Pendel a perfect asset: well-connected among the Panamanian elite, desperate for money, and susceptible to manipulation. Blackmailed into becoming Osnard's informant, Pendel begins to weave increasingly elaborate fabrications to satisfy his handler's hunger for intelligence, inventing a vast network of dissidents, secret plans, and even a 'Silent Invasion' plot involving the Panama Canal. As Pendel's fantastical stories take on a life of their own, fed by Osnard's cynical reporting up the chain of command, the lies begin to spiral out of control, threatening not only Pendel's personal life but also potentially triggering a catastrophic international incident.