The mercurial programmer who amassed a fortune during the personal computing boom? The dotcom era proto-playboy who built a yoga retreat before chasing the thrill of flying open cockpit aircraft over the New Mexico desert? The hedonist who retreated to a Caribbean enclave, surrounding himself with pump action shotguns, bodyguards, and a harem of young women? The two-time US presidential candidate turned fugitive who went on the run after the murder of his neighbour? Biographies, Mark Twain once observed, are but the clothes and buttons of a man. In McAfee’s case, can you realistically hope for more than lint and loose threads? His is a life of multiple acts, each as rich in drama and intrigue as the next. But they are buttressed by smoke and mirrors - the constructs of its complex and volatile protagonist, a man who amplified his mythology and misdirected those who came looking for the definitive narrative. When you tell the story of a master manipulator, can you ever hope to find the truth?