Khaleel Datay's Blog - Posts Tagged "deighton"

Berlin Game by Len Deighton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read Berlin Game almost twenty years ago, then again a few years later. That was in a time when authors didn't sport multiple black belts and 10 years in MI6 or CIA. Since then I've read all 9 books in the triple trilogy only Deighton could pull off. Deighton writes at a sedate pace, drawing you into the personal and work life of the protagonist to create an immediate emotional connection. Bernard Samson was a former MI6 field agent sent back into the field to Germany, the land of his birth. His job was to bring in Brahms 4 to cross to the British. Samson's character is finely drawn as a son of a war hero, a public school man married to a wealthy fellow agent. Two kids and a gorgeous nanny complete the triangle very nicely. The hero's buddy, Werner, is perfectly cast as the out of shape hen-pecked slob. The two set off on an adventure to get through the Berlin Wall with an inevitable drama of the possibility that they wont make it back to the West. Communist baddies, starchy old British characters, agents sans all the gadgets and a great post war view into the hearts and minds of the British and German people.



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Heart of the Hunter by Deon Meyer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Deon Meyer does a fantastic job to bring us a truly African hero in Tiny Mpayipheli. Like many South African freedom fighters he was trained in Soviet Russia, but his special talents were quickly noticed by his trainers. Having spent years as an assassin for the East Germans, he returned to a quiet life in the post-apartheid democracy. However as so often happens, he is forced out of retirement to keep a promise to a friend. His job, get a computer hard drive to Lusaka. It comes as no surprise that there are several parties after the drive including SA Intelligence, the CIA and an unknown third party. Drawing on the great African landscapes and the rich, if tragic, history of South Africa, the author takes us along the pursuit of Mpayipheli on a BMW GS1150 motorcycle. A thrilling and suspense-filled story that will have fans of this genre begging for more. Having shown that he's a master of South African crime fiction, Meyer displays his extraordinary talents with a great spy thriller. An enjoyable read.



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I started reading Len Deighton's triple trilogy again (Game Set Match, Hook Line Sinker + Faith Hope Charity). I'm now reading the sixth in the series, Spy Sinker. What an extraordinary feat by Deighton. Enjoyed the first couple but getting a bit jaded now. Punch drunk on the escapades of Bernie Samson, Dicky Cruyer and Werner Volkmann. Great characterization though and a nice,sometimes lighthearted look at the dark days of the Cold War. Little predictable at times, Deighton still manages to turn up the suspense with all the spies coming out from East Berlin and the machinations inside MI6. Enjoyed the look inside the old German life with all its insecurities and how it compares with that inside Great Britain.