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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
Originally published on my blog here in September 2004.
Three years after the events of [b:London Match|386252|London Match (Bernard Samson, #3)|Len Deighton|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1174355776s/386252.jpg|865553], and Bernard Samson returns, to begin narrating the second trilogy of novels about himself and his wife. With Fiona firmly established in the KGB hierarchy in Berlin after her defection, and his gradual return to being trusted in his own work for British Intelligence, and with his continuing affair with a much younger woman, everything seemed more or less settled at the end of that novel; but now something happens which beings to unravel all the loose ends that the reader thought had been tied up.
The novel begins this process in the first chapter, which takes place in Washington DC. One of the interesting things about the Game, Set and Match trilogy is the remarkably small part played by the American intelligence agencies, especialy considering the post-war relationship between the US and British governments. The few American characters are either connected to British intelligence in some way or (appear to be) freelance information gatherers. Now, though, the US begins to be involved (though the office of the opening chapter belongs to an Englishman, a former colleague of Bernard's who is a financial expert). Nevertheless, the real focus is still Berlin; everything in this series of novels revolves around the city that was the symbol of the Cold War.
Spy Hook is very much a character based thriller - as Deighton's novels often tend to be. There is no action "for the sake of it" in his novels, and this is more cerebral than most of them. Bernard still has an overwhelming desire to understand why his wife not only defected but abandoned him and the children. The question that the reader has to ask - if they have followed the series of novels so far - is whether the discrepancies he sees are really there, or alternatively that he's clutching at these tiny loose ends hoping that the whole tangle will fall apart. And, of course, this is only the first novel in a new trilogy, so we're not likely to find out anything other than how far Bernard is able to put other people's backs up.
Three years after the events of [b:London Match|386252|London Match (Bernard Samson, #3)|Len Deighton|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1174355776s/386252.jpg|865553], and Bernard Samson returns, to begin narrating the second trilogy of novels about himself and his wife. With Fiona firmly established in the KGB hierarchy in Berlin after her defection, and his gradual return to being trusted in his own work for British Intelligence, and with his continuing affair with a much younger woman, everything seemed more or less settled at the end of that novel; but now something happens which beings to unravel all the loose ends that the reader thought had been tied up.
The novel begins this process in the first chapter, which takes place in Washington DC. One of the interesting things about the Game, Set and Match trilogy is the remarkably small part played by the American intelligence agencies, especialy considering the post-war relationship between the US and British governments. The few American characters are either connected to British intelligence in some way or (appear to be) freelance information gatherers. Now, though, the US begins to be involved (though the office of the opening chapter belongs to an Englishman, a former colleague of Bernard's who is a financial expert). Nevertheless, the real focus is still Berlin; everything in this series of novels revolves around the city that was the symbol of the Cold War.
Spy Hook is very much a character based thriller - as Deighton's novels often tend to be. There is no action "for the sake of it" in his novels, and this is more cerebral than most of them. Bernard still has an overwhelming desire to understand why his wife not only defected but abandoned him and the children. The question that the reader has to ask - if they have followed the series of novels so far - is whether the discrepancies he sees are really there, or alternatively that he's clutching at these tiny loose ends hoping that the whole tangle will fall apart. And, of course, this is only the first novel in a new trilogy, so we're not likely to find out anything other than how far Bernard is able to put other people's backs up.
Hello prersent surivivors of covid and furure historians trawling the ancient net archives for tiny fragments of social and cultural life during what we with little affection and great trepidation call 2020, but which the future will centextualise in ways we probablty prefer to avoid imagining. The only insight I have to offer is that reading and reviewing books is hard. Really, really hard. I don't know why. It's just difficult. Everything feels difficult. Everything's tense and anxious, even for people like me relatively well set up to endure lockdown.
Anyway. I have read a few books, and I haven't reviewed them, hopefully I'll get back to them at some point. I picked up Spy Hook having watched the old TV adaptaion of Game, Set And Match on YouTube. Personally, I thought it was very good with excellent performances and a good script. It did make me not exactly nostalgic but wistful about the good old grimy grey drizzly days of the Cold War and the threat of nucear annihilation and the backstabbing, treachery, double dealing and sheer human waste of the espionage game. so I fished out Spy Hook because I couldn't remember how it all worked out in the subsequent trilogies.
Poor old belligerent and pig-headed Bernard Sampson ploughs on doggedly with a life wrecked by his wife's defection. Poking around in places he doesn't belong despite increasingly elaborate warnings by everyone around him leads him to a troubling conclusion and a whole heap of trouble, and then the book ends and I don't have Spy Line, and the libraries aren't taking orders yet, dammit! When will my suffering end?
Anyway. I have read a few books, and I haven't reviewed them, hopefully I'll get back to them at some point. I picked up Spy Hook having watched the old TV adaptaion of Game, Set And Match on YouTube. Personally, I thought it was very good with excellent performances and a good script. It did make me not exactly nostalgic but wistful about the good old grimy grey drizzly days of the Cold War and the threat of nucear annihilation and the backstabbing, treachery, double dealing and sheer human waste of the espionage game. so I fished out Spy Hook because I couldn't remember how it all worked out in the subsequent trilogies.
Poor old belligerent and pig-headed Bernard Sampson ploughs on doggedly with a life wrecked by his wife's defection. Poking around in places he doesn't belong despite increasingly elaborate warnings by everyone around him leads him to a troubling conclusion and a whole heap of trouble, and then the book ends and I don't have Spy Line, and the libraries aren't taking orders yet, dammit! When will my suffering end?