Thankfully, the intrigue and dark machinations merely form part of the plot of his debut novel, The Danieli Conspiracy.

McCartney, former chairman of hosiery company Adria and a partner in private equity "rm Amicus, is preparing for a nationwide launch of the book.

"We decided to launch it up here "rst and then, if we could get up a bit of momentum, Eason's said they would sell it, " McCartney said.

The Danieli Conspiracy centres on a romance between an Allied forces sailor and a local girl in the port of Derry at the end of the Second World War.

McCartney started researching the novel while working in Derry nine years ago, and later enlisted journalist John Doherty to help rewrite the book in the hope of having it published.

"I worked on it off and on for many years, but I was busy running a business in the northwest so it went in and out of the cupboards in the study, " McCartney said.

Having got this far with the "rst, McCartney and Doherty are now planning a second novel.