Horse Under Water
Written by Len Deighton & Reviewed by Detective Druski
This book was not my favorite. Just thought a little direct blunt communication would be a nice offset for a book that spends the majority of its chapters beating around the bush like only smug know it alls can. The heroin subplot ran in one direction while the ice melting lab ran in another while the sunken u boat canister was meant to be the mcguffin that lubed up the gaps. And then the villain Smith was poorly tethered to all parts of it. A quick debriefing…
Portugese revolutionaries are convinced of a sunken Nazi boat off their shores containing massive wealth, albeit a majority is counterfeit. They want to use what is found to buy weapons to overthrow their government. And they want UK’s help because their money is on there too, albeit obsolete because the fives have had their designs changed since WWII.
Harry (aka the nameless protagonist that looks exactly like Michael Caine) takes a diving crash course with chief petty officer (CPO) Edwards, then notices a tail afterward while driving. He goes to Secretary Jean’s flat and calls in the tail then asks the office to peek at the secure file registry to see who has signed out his files lately, potentially shedding light. The tail is dressed very well, likely ruling out local intelligence agencies. (burn)
Harry gets billed for a bunch of underwater equipment (to keep up appearances) and asks boss Dawlish for a pistol, which is declined. Time for Portugal, a flight to Gibraltar, and meet with Joe McIntosh, their man in Iberia.
Senor Giorgio Olivettini introduces himself, the Italian frogman, along with some diver named Clive from the Lisbon Embassy, and Harry is not impressed, tasking him with swimming trials to vet him.
The dives are underway and it’s slow going. Harry (another Harry, why? We’ll call him H.K.) the American arrives and is braggadocios. They bond and seem to collectively distrust Clive. Charley the assistant takes to Harry. Fernie, a recently introduced character, arrives with an important message from someone important?
Harry visits this important da Cunha. The man is mobbish and knows of Harry’s motives dredging the sea floor. He also assumes Harry is a liaison for some Mr Smith? Anyway he tells Harry to tell Smith he doesn’t like any of this and that he should leave, after showing him some small box. Harry sees an empty grave on the shore marked for unknown German soldiers upon departure.
Joe and Harry are strategizing when they discover the photos of the lone canister they discovered are missing. Harry and Dawlish pull an all nighter discussing the canister and the grave. Later Joe McIntosh picks up Harry and they drive near the airport where there’s an explosion that ostensibly kills McIntosh.
Harry tries to make the connection between da Cunha and the explosion. Because the package contained money die (for counterfeiting) he thinks it was meant as a bribe for Smith. They will send someone to Portugal to prove da Cunha isn’t who he says he is. As a reader, it’s difficult to discern the dynamics of the various characters caught up in the webbing of British bureaucracy. Whether this is for tension driven purposes or because the author didn’t prioritize fleshing out unique dynamics is difficult to tell throughout this story, and contributes to the underwhelming undercurrent.
Harry returns to Portugal and Charly has clearly revealed to USA Harry the diving agenda.
H.K. charters a yacht and the three of them plus Giorgio and Clive take her to sea. All discovered is some map with calculations on it. But the calcs are in ball point pen…invented after 1945.
Harry discovers the jackpot when he finally accompanies on a dive, a logbook. Giorgio gets hit by something on the ascent and dies on the beach because their diving boat capsized while diving. Harry learns he actually found a useless visitor book, not a log book. He travels to da Cunha furious and accusatory about Giorgio’s death. He also points out that Fernie, his assistant has hair that is dyed, suggesting she is British and not Portuguese.
Harry talks to an old friend Ossie about counterfeit funds the Portugal used on Britain then meets a stooge of Mr Smith’s that offers a page of the man’s diary for 1k.
“Either Mr Ivor Butcher was double-crossing his boss or I was being set up”
Harry meets with some research records guy named Kevin. Seems Smith is rather covert, lots of coded messages in his history. Big on insurance scams. Huge policies on ships and he either got rich from the cargo upon delivery or even richer if the boat sank.
This discovery is followed by an outstanding Bond villain scene with Harry and Smith.
“Power is like a fried egg,’ I told him, ‘no matter how equally you try to divide it someone is sure to get most.”
“No man who writes a medical encyclopedia is responsible for the diseases he catalogues. And so it is with you. You are a cipher – you are no more than the ink with which History is written.”
There was a trace of morphine on the canister. Harry talks to some Welshman Glynn about coco bush, hashish and mostly opium. Jean shows off an old photo of da Cunha that looks like an old German Nazi lieutenant Knobel. Fernie is also some German named Bernie.
Quite the cryptic labyrinth.
Harry returns to Portugal and immediately trauma bangs Charly. She mentions the vinegar smell of HK’s tuna packing business and Harry suspects poppy processing of acetic acid. They sneak there. They find Harry processing heroin. They interrogate him at gun point. He rats on Fernie the frogman who sneaks the H on the underside of moving ships. De Cunha is his boss. Harry lets him go then Charly shoots him in the arm before revealing she’s a USA narcotics undercover.
Fernie aka Bernie is on HK’s ship looking for a canister shipment when Harry is there to ambush him. Another expo interrogation. He was lost at sea and recovered and dug the fake graves to explain his acquisition of German wealth (soldiers that washed up with treasure) he also confirms the presence of a Weiss List on the boats, a list of British nationalists that would assist Germans in the event of a Nazi coup. He claims Joe or Grigio was killed by a giant moray and he had nothing to do with their deaths.
Fernie Tomas tells Harry that him and HK did the drug running while da Cunha blackmail elites on the Weiss list. HK flees and da Cunha burns his own labs and evidence. Harry tracks the belongings da Cunha left behind, knowing he will eventually attempt to retrieve them.
Harry finds Herr Knobel aka da Cunha hiding in some Marrakech village. He admits his history and that his lab was trying to discover ice melting techniques so subs could fire missiles in arctic waters.
Harry nabs one of the transmitters the Germans used to locate their sunken data machines and u boats. They find the canister that Tomas and HK had been looking for in the ocean. In it are letters from various rich Brit’s voicing their readiness for a new fascist Europe run by Nazis. Harry returns this to Dawlish, only to find these are a few letters of many that Dawlish has been compiling for some time. Smith will not be arrested (or paid off for that matter. Super disappointing)
There was not much in the way of character arcs and when a story doesn’t land any of its gut punches, a Raiders of the lost Ark ending where the hard work just get filed away into an infinite warehouse, well, that’s not a story that’s well told, it’s merely time that wasn’t well spent. Bernie Samson at the moment with a near insurmountable lead over Harry Palmer. We shall see after the next one…we still love you with all our hearts Mr. Deighton.
We’re going to miss you.
