Stern's extreme views soon resulted in his ostracism from Jewish society, with even the leaders of the Irgun declaring he was beyond the pale, and offering to assist British efforts to track him down. Isolated, but still determined to pursue his goals, Stern resorted to robbing Jewish banks to fund his activities, with the proceeds being used to buy guns and bomb-making equipment.

But, as Bishop explains in his thrilling narrative, Stern's days were numbered the moment his group launched an assassination campaign against the British. His exploits, which resulted in the deaths of several British officers, led to Geoffrey Morton, a senior detective in the Criminal Investigations Department of the Palestine Police, making it his personal mission to track down Stern and eliminate him.

Morton, a career-minded policemen from Camberwell, in south London, had already achieved notoriety within Jewish underground circles for his efficiency in tracking down their cells, and his trigger-happy approach when it came to raiding their hideouts. Morton had been involved in the shooting of several Jewish suspects during such raids when the police received reliable intelligence about Stern's hideout in Tel Aviv.

So it was almost inevitable that, when Morton and his well-armed group of Palestine Police raided the flat, the operation should end with Stern being shot dead by the British detective. In his official report of the incident, Morton claimed that Stern had been trying to escape when he shot him three times in the chest, killing him almost instantly. But in subsequent years other members of the police team have given differing accounts, suggesting that it might have been possible to take Stern alive.

Like the assiduous writer he is, Bishop concludes this excellent account of Stern's exploits by examining these different versions, although he is unable to come to any firm conclusion. But the fact that Morton, who believed that Stern was personally responsible for the murder of some of his closest colleagues, felt there was insufficient evidence to put Stern on trial is perhaps the strongest indicator that the British policeman decided to implement his own form of summary justice.

Whatever the truth, most of the Jewish community in Palestine at the time believed Stern had been deliberately killed, particularly the more extreme activists like Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir. These two future prime ministers of Israel would use Stern's killing to justify their own uncompromising, and ultimately successful, efforts to drive the British out of Palestine, thereby laying the foundations for the establishment of the state of Israel.