Spy Story

Deighton is on record as saying that the hero of this spy story is not the same unnamed spy from The Iprcess File, Funeral In Berlin etc, but that he is ‘cut from the same cloth'. Indeed it is easy to see why people assume he is. He's previously been employed by Dawlish, knows Colonel Stok and is similary disaffected by the secret life.

Going by the cover name of Pat Armstrong, our protagonist works at the Studies Centre in London programming War Games alongside the well-heeled Ferdy Foxwell and under the beady eye of newly appointed boss Colonel Schlegel, a brash American. The story opens with Armstrong and Foxwell returning from a six week trip on a nuclear sub gathering intel on Soviet communications in the Arctic Ocean for use in the war game tactical scenarios. Armstrong, his car breaking down on his way home, breaks into his old flat to find that an imposter seems to be living his life, right down to faked pictures with Armstrong's parents!

There follows a complex thriller set against the background of German reunification talks and the possible defection of a Soviet Admiral. This being the 70s, there's even a shadowy right-wing cabal, including an MP, playing their own secret game of cross and double cross. Armstrong is caught in a complex web of deceit and, in the final third, of the novel the action moves to a remote Scottish Island and then on to a nuclear sub which is to rendezvous with the defecting Admiral. Or is it?

Deighton writes superbly, as ever, and you can tell he's done the research. While not hitting the heights of Funeral in Berlin, this is a tough, serviceable espionage thriller, well worth a read. I just wish he'd been inspired to find a better title for it!