Berlin Game
by Len Deighton
Buy on AmazonBerlin Game is a 1983 spy novel by Len Deighton. It is the first novel in the first of three trilogies about Bernard Samson, a middle-aged intelligence officer working for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Berlin Game is part of the Game, Set and Match trilogy, being succeeded by Mexico Set and London Match, and followed by the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy and the final Faith, Hope and Charity trilogy. Deighton's novel Winter (1987) is a prequel to the nine novels, covering the years 1900-1945 and providing the backstory to some of the characters.
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"All spy fiction is really an extended metaphor for the office. No character captures that better than Bernard Samson, a middle-ranking intelligence executive, who can’t trust anyone. He’s meant to be outwitting the KGB, but he could be any middle-aged man struggling to stay afloat in a big company, betrayed by his bosses as well as his wife. Berlin Game is the first (and best) of the Game, Set and Match trilogy, the height of Deighton’s achievements. Samson is going into work every day on the train, watching his back at work, his marriage is collapsing. Deighton is very good on women and marriage. Anyway, Samson is hunting for a mole in the organisation who is leaking details and it has a brilliant twist because all the way through you think the marriage stuff is just padding, characterisation, but in fact one of the reasons his wife is so difficult is that she’s working for the KGB. I think this really is the best Cold War thriller."
The Best Classic British Thrillers · fivebooks.com