The Chancellor Manuscript is a 1977 novel, by American writer Robert Ludlum

Robert Ludlum

Robert Ludlum was an American author of 23 thriller novels. The number of his books in print is estimated between 290–500 million copies. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.-Life and...

, about the "alleged" secret files of J. Edgar Hoover

J. Edgar Hoover

John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...

and how they disappeared after his death, and how they possibly could be used to force people in high places to do the bidding of those who possessed the secrets contained therein. It also speculated that Hoover himself might have been assassinated because he knew too much about too many of the wrong people.

Plot

In the story, Peter Chancellor, who found unlikely success as an author of political thrillers after his ambitions to become a historian were frustrated, writes a work of fiction that comes close enough to the scenario described that the people who controlled those files, a group called Inver Brass in the novel, decide that someone else may also know too much. This sets the stage for the international intrigue that follows.

Meta

In the end Ludlum left the reader wondering if it was he himself, not Peter Chancellor, the protagonist of his story, who knew of the conspiracy.