The Ipcress File (Secret File, #1) in Espionage Aficionados

Sep 30, 2016 Nooilforpacifists rated it really liked it

Shelves: thriller

It's hard to believe this was Deighton's first book. Had I written something as clever, sarcastic, and thrilling as this, I would have stopped there, and admired myself in the mirror for a decade. Good thing Len didn't--this book gets scrambled at the end. By contrast, by the time he hit his stride in the three Bernard Sampson trilogies, there wasn't a hair out of place.

Deighton didn't go to Eton; he's not an Oxbridge grad. But he read like a madman, had some Toff friends, and must have the ret ...more

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Jan 28, 2022 Bill Fairclough rated it it was amazing

Len Deighton's novels are mostly brilliant and, inter alia, they inspired me to write Beyond Enkription, the first of six stand-alone fact based novels in The Burlington Files series based on my life.

I find it amusing that some critics have described me as "the posh Harry Palmer" in Beyond Enkription, the first of six stand-alone fact based spy novels in The Burlington Files series based on my life!

PS I am aware that Len Deighton did not refer to the protagonist in several of his novels includin ...more

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Oct 14, 2022 Ben rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I've just completed reading the Ipcress File. Generally, I found Deighton's style fairly easy to read but in my opinion, the novel was hobbled by the literary device of keeping the reader completely in the dark. It felt as though the main character was on a wild goose chase of seemingly unrelated events and then in the concluding chapter another character and the main character piece it together for the benighted reader. That I found ham-fisted, tedious, and a little patronizing. Ipcress File is ...more

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