1:34pm UK, Thursday July 24, 2008

Martin Brunt, In Praia da Luz, Portugal

A book called "Maddie - The Truth of the Lie" is going on sale in Portugal today, with claims from its author that someone who was there on the night Madeleine McCann vanished is hiding the truth.

Author Goncalo Amaral worked on the Madeleine case.

Former police chief Goncalo Amaral, who wrote the 224-page book, insists Madeleine is dead and believes she died in the apartment where the family were staying.

He criticises the McCanns, their friends, Gordon Brown and the British police.

Mr Amaral was in charge when Kate and Gerry McCann were made arguidos, or official suspects, so readers may question his agenda.

He was later removed from the case after speaking out against UK officers and he then retired.

In the book, he accuses the McCanns of neglecting their children and questions why they needed a professional spokesperson. Why was their public image so important to them?

They and their friends, he writes, gave conflicting statements of who did what and when during their meal on the fateful night.

And he questions how one friend, Jane Tanner, could have noticed such detail of the suspect she says she saw carrying a child near the apartment.

Mr Amaral also attacks Gordon Brown for trying to influence the investigation to the benefit of the McCanns.

He says British police were slow to provide information asked for and took six months to pass on a potentially vital witness statement.

A request for Madeleine's medical records was ignored, he writes.

The book's publishers remind readers that Mr Amaral was a successful detective and top of his class of police cadets 27 years ago.

But they make no mention of the perjury charge he faces over another missing child investigation.

Maddie - The Truth of the Lie, priced at 13 euros, is being launched at one of Lisbon's top department stores, where Mr Amaral will be signing copies.