Len Deighton (1929–2026)

"A good agent should have a fast brain and a slow mouth." (189)

Deighton's protagonist in his fourth spy story isn't very good at taking his own sage advice on this score, and he often manages to kill the mood for his interlocutors with the momentum of his wit. Still nameless--although now sometimes alias "Liam Dempsey"--our man hasn't lost his appetite for reading military history or gained any emotional coordination with his beautiful secretary. But the book's events have him preoccupied show more with a global anti-communist network run by a technophile American mogul, who seems to be H. Ross Perot prematurely aged in the 1960s. Penetrating this "amateur" espionage outfit leads to various adventures.

The author's twenty-first-century retrospective introduction treats his methods of research and writing. He shares that he later came to disdain the extensive travel that he had used to incubate this novel, but I think it really paid off. I don't know Helsinki, Leningrad or Riga, but his Manhattan and south Texas episodes were quite persuasive. He also mentions the increasing complexity of character continuity in this book, as it returns to interactions with key figures from the previous volume beyond the immediate colleagues of the narrator. Billion-Dollar Brain however avoids the sort of supplementary viewpoint chapters that Deighton had tried out in Funeral in Berlin, sticking more rigorously with the speaker's perspective as he had done in his first books.

The revelation of the story's manic pixie dream girl as a femme fatale is artfully predictable, and is thankfully not at all the point of the book. There is a significant plotline regarding clandestine trade in viral pathogens, and the fact that a central character complained of fevers and feelings of illness remains an un-dropped shoe after the final pages. I did appreciate a long chapter of denouement to unwind, with a mop-up operation motivated by inter-agency rivalry. show less

First up Bomber is not an enjoyable book or an easy read, but it is a well researched and constructed novel that highlights the futility and dreadful human costs of war.
Set during a fictional bomber raid over the Ruhr, the initial first half of the book is scattered and wide ranging. But this apparent lack of focus is deliberate as the author seeks to build the world and set up the gravitas and reinforce the impact of loss and human suffering. In this Deighton is tremendously effective, but show more for me the outcome was one where I was glad to have finished the book, and a strong sense that I have no desire to revisit in the future.
Ironically I recall attempting to read this as a young boy, but the complexity of the narrative made it unreadable to a youngster.
Ultimately this is a novel I respect, but not one I wish to own. Accordingly I will donate this book to charity. show less

"Stok waited while the grey-haired one closed the door behind her. Then he said, 'Let's stop quarrelling, shall we?'

'You mean personally?' I said. 'Or are you speaking on behalf of the Soviet Union?'"

When Len Deighton's Cold War spy stories appeared in the first half of the 1960s they were welcomed as painting a more realistic picture of the world of espionage than did the fantasy world of James Bond. Whether it is actually a true picture or not, Deighton certainly makes you FEEL as if you show more are getting a glimpse of the real spy world.

In my view, Deighton's first four spy novels are by far his best. These are: "The Ipcress File"; "Horse Under Water"; "Funeral in Berlin"; and "Billion Dollar Brain". I feel that after this period Deighton went downhill, losing the lightness of touch and sharpness that characterise these four books.

Three of these four were also transferred to the big screen: "The Ipcress File" and "Funeral in Berlin" are quite good films; the film version of "Billion Dollar Brain" is best forgotten.

It has been rightly pointed out that the nameless narrator (who becomes Michael Caine's "Harry Palmer" in the films) is reminiscent of Raymond Chandler's private detective, Philip Marlowe, but transferred from the world of crime to the world of espionage. The two characters certainly both have the same mixture of wise-cracking humour, cynicism, sharpness of mind, and integrity. (Though with Deighton's character there is less emphasis on the last of these - his job involves more deviousness than Marlowe's.)

The other "realistic" spy story writer who came along at about the same time as Deighton was John Le Carre. But I've always preferred Deighton (at least the early Deighton), as I find Le Carre's books rather humourless and bleak. (Though the TV version of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" with Alec Guinness is brilliant.)

Although Deighton's leading character (like Deighton himself, presumably) is on the side of the West, "Funeral in Berlin" is cynical about both sides in the Cold War. On the one hand, the Russian Colonel Stok makes telling criticisms of Western capitalism. But on the other, there are sideswipes against "communism", too, as when a character comes out with the joke: "Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man. Yes? Well socialism is exactly the reverse."

If you substitute the word "Stalinism" for "socialism" in that joke, I would certainly agree that BOTH systems are based on exploitation. The so-called "communist" states of Russia, China, Eastern Europe etc were/are actually forms of bureaucratic state capitalism, not socialism. Genuine socialism would be democratic, and it would not build a Berlin Wall to stop people escaping! As someone once said, "The Free World is not really free, and the Communist World is not really communist."

"Funeral in Berlin" is excellent entertainment, but we also need to remember that the real world of secret services is a nasty one. They do not just spy on each other. They spy on (and often persecute) dissenting voices within their own countries, and they conduct dirty tricks such as the toppling of elected governments (as the CIA did in Chile). There are no heroes or "good guys" in the real secret world: just villains on both sides. show less

Very Len Deighton. Very mid '60s. Very Francophile.

The nameless English operator (yes, a young Michael Caine works for the role) is sandwiched between various nameless agencies. Who may or may not be the French government fighting amongst themselves. But someone has the budget to buy detached houses on the Avenue Foch, and yet the poor old operators can't even have decent plumbing.

This is pure Deighton, and pure Paris of around this era. E-type Jags and shared toilets. Corner bars and hare show more terrine. Evil psychologists. An unusually prescient appraisal of China's future domination (Better than the mid-'60s Chinese government could achieve). But sometimes a champignon is still just a tinned mushroom. I enjoyed this. But as a historical curiosity, both in setting and authorship. I'm always going to prefer le Carré over Deighton. The plot is ludicrous. Too many people turn out to be related. Too many bodies just appear and disappear under the police's nose. OK, it's mid '60s Paris, but they're not Algerian. It's worth the read, but it's no George Smiley. show less