Yesterday's Spy

Mid-period Deighton, still using an anonymous spy as his protagonist (although here going by his wartime cover of Charlie), Yesterday's Spy is a solid espionage novel, by turns melancholy, bitter and action-packed.

Charlie is tasked with investigating his old comrade, the splendidly named Steve Champion, wartime hero of the resistance who now appears to be working for the Arabs. Dawlish, from Deighton's classic sixties novels appears briefly, but it is the brash American Schlegel (last seen in Spy Story) who is Charlie's boss and main contact as he goes undercover to try and get the dirt on his old friend. The chapter where Charlie appears to go off the rails as he establishes deep cover is reminiscent of LeCarre's Alec Leamas's descent into purgatory. It's very effective although perhaps Champion is too quick to welcome his old friend into his inner circle.

The plot twists and turns nicely with Charlie reconnecting with the remnants of his wartime network as he works for Champion in France. There's a subplot about Champion's ex-wife and his son (who he kidnaps at one point), which doesn't really get fully developed. But Charlie is an interesting protagonist. A middle-aged, bespectacled career spy who really doesn't want to be doing the task at hand. The double bluff around stolen French nukes and Champion's motives is well done, but this feels a bit like Deighton by numbers. Indeed Champion ends up like a pastiche of a Bond villain, complete with secret lair and an improbable plan to wreak destruction.

So Yesterday's Spy is a good, solid read, enjoyable at the time, but probably not one to return to. It's certainly not up to the standard of Ipcress or Funeral.