Faith

Although I have always been more a fan of his quick-read spy thrillers that spawned the Harry Palmer movies, Len Deighton's most accomplished delineation of the Cold War spy has to be his ten-volume epic torment of Bernd Samson. Beginning with "Winter," to set the background, moving quickly through "Game," "Set" and "Match," to set up our hero, and salting the wounds in "Hook," "Line" and "Sinker," lest our master op relax, this epic enters the end-game in Deighton's "Faith," being the eighth volume and first of a concluding three volume set. If you love, as do I, that complex web of intrigues and betrayals that typify the lives of our anti-heroic Bonds and Palmers, then you'll relish this near endless revel. Deighton is a master of the set-up: He runs his protagonist down a danger strewn path while allowing scant justification for the hero's sleazy use of allies and corruption of the occasional bystander, and inevitably drops his agent and the reader into bewildering mire that should have been obvious at the outset. As with all his novels "Faith" keeps the faith, delivering an engrossing narrative that stands alone for a quick thrill. But, for the deeper read, start from the beginning of this tale of a man who was born to spy.

To write a long trilogy on the very last months of the DDR from the point of view of the British Secret Services in 1994 is « nearly » anachronic. So the author chose a completely different approach than a simple spy story. It is a real novel with real and thick characters who do have a social existence and a cultural density. The « action » is slower of course. And the object of the novel is not to show us one more of those unbeatable James Bond. The object of the novel is to explore the human and unhuman, definitely unhumane, functioning of London Central. Incredible conflicts between field-agents and bureaucrats, the severe hierarchization of these bureaucrats in the number of square meters of office space they get, with or without a window, with carpet or linoleum on the floor, etc. This constant inside strife is the main characteristic of London Central. The plot of the book will peter out because field agents have no say, and bureaucrats forget essential elements. The bureaucrats dream theories that bite the dust when implemented, at times with casualties, and yet they will survive with essentially two methods. 1- They will put the blame on their underlings (and there is condescendence in this attitude) ; 2- They will cover up the failure with a false explanation that will make a KGB or Stasi agent become a sniper in London and use an American weapon and all the night equipment necessary. They will of course try to cover up the nature of the weapon. For that reason the book is interesting. We are under the surveillance and control - constant control - of secret services who are the most conflictual pot of spiders in the world. We don't know them. We have to trust them. And we may find ourselves under crossfire. Bad luck and that has not changed since the end of the Cold War, far from it. The advantage of this system was that it more or less shortcircuited terrorism. Nowadays we still have the conflictual antagonistic secret services plus the various terrorist organizations that provide some discontents with the possibility to express their anger at, or their ambition in, their society and world that are the cause of their discontentment. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne

In the post-communist world, the Cold War espionage genre may seem a little dated. We have other concerns and fears on our minds now. But for reasons I'll get to below, this novel series is a stand-out from that era, and still well worth reading. This book was actually written after the fall of communism, but the plot takes place a few years before it. In this book Samson returns to work for London Central and deals with a disastrous assignment in East Germany; an internal struggle to keep positions in a down-sizing agency; etc. The book plot is interesting enough, but running alongside it are several series-length plots that continue to engross the reader: can Bernard and his wife Fiona rebuild their marriage after her apparent defection and return? In fact, can Fiona even recover from her ordeal? What about Gloria? I just recently re-read the entire Bernard Samson series (of which this is the seventh out of nine novels). It is one of the best novel series I have ever read, and certainly one of the best espionage genre series ever. There are so many things to like about this series - the in-depth characterizations; the pithy observational asides about people and cultures; the references to multiple languages and their subtleties; the gritty European settings; the hidden plot developments and character motivations that the narrator either can't or won't see; etc. The author claims that each of these books can be read on their own, and perhaps they could be. But you can get a lot more enjoyment out of it if you start at the beginning with _Berlin Game_ (or even better yet - start with the WWII prequel: _Winter_).

My favorite in the entire series! Faith lacks the action/suspense of earlier works but attains near-perfect distillation of Samson's dry humor and solitary perspective. I laughed out loud repeatedly. I suspect the humor is all the more enjoyable having waded through pages and pages of the earlier books to wring out mere droplets of Samson's bitingly funny sarcasm. The journey here makes it all the better. Of course, I am biased; Deighton can do no wrong in my eyes.

The three trilogies written by len deighton about Bernard Samson are second to none. They are gripping, from start to end.Although nowhere near as good as the first 2 trilogies, faith hope and charity is still a fantastic set of books, and deserves nothing less than 5stars.I only started reading spy game last week, and already I have finished all 9 books ... and will probably re-read them all again sometime soon.They really are fantastic! no matter what type of book you are interested in (I prefer lawyer and detective stories) you will just love all 9 of these books!!