Berlin Game by Len Deighton

In the hush-hush rush to extract a source in East Berlin, a mole is discovered at the top of Britain’s secret service.

Even better than I remembered.

Loved it. One of my favourite reads this year.

Field agent Bernard Samson is the man everyone likes to overlook. A gin in hand, a crumpled exterior, and a wife who’s much too beautiful for him. But his sharp mind is noting and processing every inflection, glance, and hesitation: the grey man is in fact a man of steel.

But not in a James Bond smash-and-grab way. This is a Cold War world of psychology, pillow talk, and observation; a world of espionage which includes wives and children and Sunday lunches. Where battles are not borne out by gun, but by sleight-of-hand.

“Now that I had to face the truth, I found it easier than dealing with the dread of it.” (p.287)

The characters are rich and complex, all laden with different nostalgias and complicated loyalties. The dialogue is smart and satisfying, often funny. Bernard is hilarious - particularly in his spats with self-proclaimed hot shot Dicky Cruyer.

Set in 1980s London and Berlin before the Wall came down, Berlin Game is the first in Deighton’s ‘Game, Set, and Match’ trilogy. It’s smart, gripping, and highly-enjoyable.

This edition includes an Afterword by Len Deighton on his writing process.

“Speaking as a reader of books rather than a writer, I have always measured a book’s success by the way in which the characters were affected by events as the story progressed.” (p.295)

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A Legacy of Spies by John Le Carré