What book had a blind prisoner escape using a device that allowed him to see what animals saw? [duplicate]

Question

I'm trying to remember a book I read in the mid to late 90's (but which I think was written in the 60's or 70's) in which the hero was a spy that got captured by his rivals, blinded and put in a prison. There he somehow manages to build a device that allows him to see what nearby animals can see, with a dial to select between animals. He uses this to attempt an escape.

I don't remember much else except that the planet that captured him had a strict Lutherian communist economic structure in which the local currency was something like 'an hour', representing precisely the amount of time you worked to get that amount.

Anyone remember the author and title of this book? I never owned a copy. I lived in a shared house at the time and I no longer have contact with the house mate that leant me his copy to read.

Answer 1

Night Walk by Bob Shaw :)

The description from Google Books:

For 'refusing to co-operate' the Emm Luther Special Police took out Earth agent Sam Tallon's eyes and imprisoned him on a dark and eerie swamp from which nobody ever escaped.But then Tallon invented a way of seeing - ludicrous, agonizing, yet still a way to make escape possible. He 'saw' through the eyes of a bird. A dog, a woman guard and, later, even saw himself through the eyes of his enraged Lutheran pursuers. Madness and death were his constant companions as he schemed and fought and struggled for his life. Any other man would have gladly given up, but then, Sam Tallon had no choice for he was the unfortunate possessor of the single most important secret in the universe - a secret which had to be returned to Earth somehow.