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5.0 out of 5 stars
There is no 'love' in the tennis match of espionage, Mar 14 2004
This is the second novel of the Bernard Samson trilogy which begins with Berlin Game and ends with London Match. The story opens with Dicky Cruyer cursing at a pedestrian in a Mexico trafic jam. Interestingly enough, Mr. Deighton shows us the pedestrian 400 pages later to see if we've been paying attention.Samson, a professional MI-6 field operative, is devastated by the defection of his wife, Fiona, to the other side. Read KGB. Read the evil empire. To all that ask him 'if he still loves her' he denies he does. But Mr. Deighton leaves any number of clues for his readers to make us know that at best, it's just false bravado. Handicapped somewhat emotionally by the strain of realizing that their whole marriage, the children, the shared experiences was but a stage she played upon, Bernard must also face the onslaught of accusatory hearings from his employers at London Central, the 'deskmen' lacking any field experience where hard men do the hard things that he hates so much. We see the old characters Frank Harrington, the Iago-like Dicky, the self serving Bret Rensselaer, and his close friend for life Werner Volkmann and Volkmann's straying wife, Zena. Deighton's humor is subtle and droll. When faced with a dilemma Dicky says "Muy BLOODY complicado," Bernard thinks 'that's only because he doesn't understand.' Blood is spilt, sometimes innocent blood, sometimes not so innocent. Bernard is loyal, confused, older, tripped up by forces that should be aiding him but who have their own agendas. Erich Stinnes, the KGB officer who interrogated him in East Berlin says to him, "I hate deskmen." Samson replies "Me too. They're bloody dangerous." Excellent read about the life and death struggles of the alphabet agencies of the 70's and 80's. You don't have to read Berlin Game first but it helps. Things are different now . . but maybe not. Maybe there are just different letters. 5 stars. Larry Scantlebury
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by Len Deighton
by Len Deighton
by Len Deighton
by Len Deighton
