Twinkle, Twinkle Little Spy

A very nice book, probably not as good as his nine Bernard Samson novels, but still a nice read. It has the usual globetrotting spy aspects and is done in a way that only Len Deighton could pull off. If you are a fan of deightons this is sure to please.

Here's the short of it: This is a fast paced tale of international espionage. It was issued in the US under the title of "Catch a Falling Spy". Look for reviews there.

Although the novel doesn't come right and say it, this has all the markings of a "Harry Palmer" novel. A nameless British agent criss crosses the globe in an effort to aid a defecting Russian scientist. Nothing is as it seems and our protagonist must sort it all out.

This terse, fast-moving cold-war spy yarn has to do with a pair of counterspies careening around the world (the Sahara, Washington, Paris, Florida) trying to coopt a Russian engineer in order to get at a Russian installation capable of intercepting satellite intelligence transmissions. The main characters are a CIA operative, Major Mann, and the story's narrator, a nameless British agent. The plot twists are entertaining enough, but as in all of this author's better books, the real fun is in overhearing the conversations and the wry observations that reveal the characters and situations in which the coolly competent protagonists operate. Much of the pleasure in a Deighton novel lies in coming upon the author's clever turns of phrase -- as in a scene where our two agents are in the posh Florida home of a communist agent grilling the wife regarding her knowledge of his activities. She tries to maintain a facade of innocent southern gentility, but as her story is being picked apart item by item, she fiddles with her purse, which our narrator observes is "made from a couple of yards of the Bayeaux tapestry."