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A review by saareman
Horse Under Water by Len Deighton
3.0
The WOOC(P) Files #2
Review of the Penguin Modern Classics paperback edition (April, 2021) of the original Jonathan Cape hardcover (1963)
Michael Caine as Harry Palmer on one of the paperback editions of Horse Under Water, image sourced from http://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2014_01_01_archive.html. Note: The book did not have a movie adaptation.
Horse Under Water is the 2nd of my re-reads after having recently learned of the Penguin Modern Classics republication of all of Len Deighton's novels which is being planned over the course of 2021 in an online article Why Len Deighton's spy stories are set to thrill a new generation (Guardian/Observer May 2, 2021).
This second outing was just about as confusing as The IPCRESS File. The nameless agent (renamed Harry Palmer in the Michael Caine movies) of the mysterious WOOC(P) secret service is at first sent out to retrieve counterfeit currency from a sunken German U-Boat off the coast of Portugal. A rag-tag group of hangers-on gradually join the proceedings, almost all of them are not whom they say they are. The mission turns into a hunt for heroin instead (thus the use of the slang word 'Horse' in the title) which also is not the real mission. Eventually everyone reveals their true motives and the real purpose of the mission becomes clear almost at the very end of the book. The protagonist is mostly as confused as we are, but finally sees the goal. Oh, and there was an ice-melting machine somewhere in there as well to add another red herring to the mix.
I'm still enjoying revisiting these books from my early espionage fiction reading days, but it is more for the banter in the dialogue than the confusion of the plots. I am already on to the 3rd book Funeral in Berlin which at least seems to stick to the main plot throughout, with less diversions.
Trivia and Link
I do rather like how the cover designs of all of these 2021 Penguin Modern Classics editions incorporate the painted crossing-walk stripes that were used in an early Horse Under Water edition pictured above.
Review of the Penguin Modern Classics paperback edition (April, 2021) of the original Jonathan Cape hardcover (1963)
Dawlish always tended to placate other departments when they asked us to do something difficult or stupid. I saw each job in terms of the people who would have to do the dirty work. That's the way I saw this job, but Dawlish was my master. - the nameless protagonist about his boss in Chapter 2 of Horse Under Water
'You didn't understand your role, my boy,' he said in his smug voice, 'we didn't want you to discover anything. Somehow we knew that you would make them do something indiscreet.' - Dawlish to the unnamed protagonist in Chapter 58 of Horse Under Water
Michael Caine as Harry Palmer on one of the paperback editions of Horse Under Water, image sourced from http://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2014_01_01_archive.html. Note: The book did not have a movie adaptation.
Horse Under Water is the 2nd of my re-reads after having recently learned of the Penguin Modern Classics republication of all of Len Deighton's novels which is being planned over the course of 2021 in an online article Why Len Deighton's spy stories are set to thrill a new generation (Guardian/Observer May 2, 2021).
This second outing was just about as confusing as The IPCRESS File. The nameless agent (renamed Harry Palmer in the Michael Caine movies) of the mysterious WOOC(P) secret service is at first sent out to retrieve counterfeit currency from a sunken German U-Boat off the coast of Portugal. A rag-tag group of hangers-on gradually join the proceedings, almost all of them are not whom they say they are. The mission turns into a hunt for heroin instead (thus the use of the slang word 'Horse' in the title) which also is not the real mission. Eventually everyone reveals their true motives and the real purpose of the mission becomes clear almost at the very end of the book. The protagonist is mostly as confused as we are, but finally sees the goal. Oh, and there was an ice-melting machine somewhere in there as well to add another red herring to the mix.
I'm still enjoying revisiting these books from my early espionage fiction reading days, but it is more for the banter in the dialogue than the confusion of the plots. I am already on to the 3rd book Funeral in Berlin which at least seems to stick to the main plot throughout, with less diversions.
Trivia and Link
I do rather like how the cover designs of all of these 2021 Penguin Modern Classics editions incorporate the painted crossing-walk stripes that were used in an early Horse Under Water edition pictured above.