Clive Lyle is a fictional character in the three last novels by Peter Niesewand, the South African journalist who spent 73 days in solitary confinement for his coverage of the last years of Ian Smith's government in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He features as a United States agent, working variously for the CIA and DIA. He uses his ambiguous sexuality ("Is that [homosexuality] true about you, Clive?" "Not necessarily") to advantage in The Word of a Gentleman, and sees sex as a mere means to an end.