LONDON MATCH
Written by Len Deighton & Reviewed by the Green Vegetable
The final set in the tennis trilogy London Match dives right in, and serves up first person POV via old reliable Bernard Samson, reinforcing the immersion. He’s with Werner on some stakeout at some Berlin party. They find some woman. She’s a former Brit living in Berlin as a teacher that’s been trained as a Russian spy whom they caught passing an envelope. Bernie chats with her, she confesses mostly to being a Marxist, then Bernie and Werner go to Werner’s apartment. His wife Zena is there who used to be in love with the notorious Erich Stinnes and cheated on Werner with Frank Harrington, head of Berlin. And to think Ringo Starr is impressive, when Zena accomplished all this by 22!
Bernard delivers his report to Dicky Cruyer, his boss and German Station Controller. Dicky is prickly as usual with him, reminding Bernie that his wife Fiona defected. (see Berlin Game!) And then Dicky mentions that Stinnes is perpetually detained because Samson’s still an open file (his wife was a Russian spy!), but Dicky wants nothing to do with Stinnes. He also mentions Frank’s pending retirement and that Bret is better suited for that vacancy than Bernard. Bernie suspects Dicky is cheating on his wife. Also the lady they picked up tried to off herself while in custody. Her real name is Muller, but goes by Miller. It’s a lot of information to take in, but most of this is refresher from the previous two books of the trilogy. Len Deighton doles out information the reader recognizes while keeping it from feeling redundant.
Chapter four is a bit abrupt and muddy. Bernie takes the kids to visit Uncle Silas, but uncle is really some old spy. For some reason Frank and Bret are there too??? And so is von Munte, some refugee from eastern bloc that is being staged with his wife there. Samson asks Silas if he ever knew about this Miller teacher lady and of course he knows about her, but tells Samson don’t bother digging further.
Chapter five, however, is a great chapter. We find out Miller is dead, she was taken during triage and the kidnappers drove her into the canal. Dicky makes Samson leave his motherless children to go to Berlin to ID the body on Xmas because Frank isn’t there. Werner meets him at the cabal and they argue because Bernie is pissy about missing holiday with kids. He’s also irritated because Dicky and Silas are suggesting his traitor wife Fiona went by two code names. But Bernie is sure it was just the one. Eisenguss. No one seems to believe him and since he’d be a prime suspect if a second mole was around, Werner thinks Bernie keeps screaming fire in case he’s accused of arson. The ambulance is retrieved from the river but it’s in neutral, the doors are locked, and it’s empty…meaning someone pushed the car in the water and took the corpse with them. Bernie goes to see his aunt Lisl who lives nearby since it’s Xmas. Reader immersion really worked here because the reader found out the information at the same time as Bernard, making all parties feel involved.
Now Bernie is with some guy named Lange who worked with Bernie’s father. A meandering chapter six, but Bernie pretends like he no longer works for MI5 and Lange rambles like Silas about the old days. This type of nostalgia happens too often in Len Deighton books. Anyway, he says something about a Russian woman that gets Bernie’s attention but otherwise it was mostly a chapter talking trash on Bret, ensuring the reader fully suspects him as a second mole.
Out of nowhere Bernie sees a tail and is then briefly abducted by a Russian cell that makes him believe they’re kidnapping and torturing his son Billy. Then they tell him go away and take a posh gig in DC. Bernie wonders if this is Fiona’s work then takes Lisl to Werner’s Xmas party after they release him. He’s still trying to convince himself that Bret is a second mole but Werner thinks he’s just bitter because Bret and Fiona once did what agents do.
Another chapter, another random comes out of the woodwork. Bernie goes to his brother in law George’s house to buy a car. While there, Posh Harry shows up and fear mongers both of them with CIA gossip about Bernie being in danger because of his wife, but also shoehorns in that Bret is a great guy. Then he leaves, then George says he suspects his wife Tessa is cheating again but with Dicky Cruyer. Bernie says he’ll keep an ear to the ground.
A meeting at Bret’s office. Bernie arrives first and Bret says he’s taking over the Stinnes debriefing because they’re getting nowhere and Bernie will now be integral. Dicky and Morgan - asst to D-G - arrive and both are not happy. They get pissy, then Morgan mentions Frank retiring and Bret taking the position… unless Dicky says no. Boring office politics chapter. Well written though. Things slow down as Bernie visits various acquaintances, a bit of the old lazy Susan portion of the story where the author resets all the pieces on the board.
In chapter twelve, Bernie goes to Downing Street to talk to some lady Mabel Hogarth to investigate the genesis of the McGuffin Memo that found its way to Moscow. They discuss work flow, there are so many eyeballs in so many depts that see it, but he learns due to a watermark that it’s his own department’s copy, meaning the copy that made it to Moscow is the one that started on Bret’s desk.
Bernie and Bret chat at his place. Bret is proud of what they’ve gotten from Stinnes so far. He wants Bernie to go and nurse Stinnes some more, but Bernie bristles because that’s MI5 turf, not theirs. Bret keeps trashing Lange about the old days then Ted Riley shows up, the guy that’s been babysitting Stinnes. This segues to a great chapter fifteen. It started slow with Ted and Bernie reminiscing about when Ted worked with Bernie’s dad. Ted goes across the street to break into the filing cabinet Stinnes tipped them about. It’s wired and Ted explodes. Bret arrives and him and Bernie argue over Stinne’s true allegiance, and whether he knew that would happen when he offered the intel.
And sixteen was another great chapter. Bret wants to double down on the op after the explosion, but no one else does. He says Stinnes told him about couriers for KGB who receive cash payments aka the Cambridge net. Bret wants to accompany Stinnnes on a payout. Morgan the DGs assistant strongly opposes and so does Dicky when he hears spending money is involved. They go to director general Henry Clevemore’s office to settle the argument. Fun writing here, as Henry talking to both his tailor as well as Bret making his case for the op. He ultimately agrees with a week time frame and asks that Samson go along too and Morgan remain looped in. A boring sequence of events made enjoyable by great writing.
Seventeen is even better. Bret and Bernie are at a laundromat with Stinnes and his bodyguard in the car. When KGB arrives for the payout, the one pulls out wires and blows up the car before a shootout. Bret was worthless in action. Stinnes survives because the bodyguard noticed the amateurs and got out of the car. Bernie goes to Dicky’s to give his report and his wife demands a meeting with George to confront him about his wife Tessa having an affair with her Dicky. She will name Tessa in the divorce. She also lets slip that Bret is under investigation and suspected of trying to get Stinnes killed at the meet.
Twenty was yet another banger, Len. Bernie goes to Tessa’s to confront her about her affair with Dicky. She’s far too casual about it and things get heated until she mentions she saw Fiona. She visited an aunt in Eindhoven and Fiona was also there like when they went for holiday as children. Fiona wants custody of the children now. Bernie is stunned but also adamant that Tessa end the affair immediately because of the implications. Great unexpected twist with 100 pages to go. Favorite Deighton book read by far.
Dicky and Bernard are now in Bernie’s office. Bret has been transferred to another building to head up some committee, but really it’s to investigate Samson as he’s a suspect now. Dicky says he and Tessa broke up and also says he went on a drop years ago with Bret and the KGB contact they handed off to recognized Bret.
Werner and Zola are in town for his testimony and eat with Bernie and Gloria. Then Werner and Bernie discuss Bret and their time in Berlin together. Turns out the Miller woman from the beginning…Werner spotted her clerking in east Berlin. She’s alive, which is consistent with the empty ambulance, but Bernie is convinced she lied to the KGB about any intel she gave Bernie re running two agents otherwise they wouldn’t have reemployed her.
Werner and Bernie are at Lisl’s hotel where they spent time as children. Bernie is now convinced that Stinnes is a lone wolf agent, and that Miller woman and Bret were all to throw off the scent and make Bern spread all of Stinnes bad intel. Werner leaves via S bahn train to east Berlin for some legit business, but author made it all sound quite ominous. Loving this book, but there’s now too many theories floating about and it waters down the impact of the truth. There are compelling reasons to suspect as well as exonerate nearly every major player. Agatha Christie would be proud.
In chapter twenty five, Bret shows up in the middle of the night at Bernie’s. He’s been arrested and skipped to Bernie, the only person he thinks he can trust. Stinnes suddenly became very loose lipped with all kinds of Soviet intel etc. When asked why he suddenly is so cooperative he mentions that he already told all this to Bret at the beginning (shouldn’t there be a transcript of that somewhere?) Anyway, Bret is being framed by Stinnes if he is indeed a plant. Bret and Bern must go talk to Frank to begin the exoneration. Bern gets to Frank in the middle of the night. There’s an empty Campari and OJ glass with lipstick on it…Zeno Volkmann’s fave drink. Bern needs Frank to hire some helpers to fetch Stinnes and bring him to Berlin so MI5 can’t interfere. He brings Bret to Frank’s to fully convince him to help as Frank also believes Bret is innocent. Bernard goes to see Posh Harry with his plan. Bern requests that Harry let it slip that Bern has been torturing Stinnes to provoke Russia. Then tell them Bret has been promoted instead of arrested. Then Bret wants a secret meeting with Bernie’s wife Fiona . He wants to trade Stinnes for Werner Volkmann who was arrested last night in east Berlin.
Unfortunately in chapter twenty eight, Pavel Moskvin becomes the focal point again. Yuck, was trying to avoid including him in the plot. Anyway they meet up as planned, Fiona is there but Pavel calls the shots. Stinnes for Werner. Apparently it’s confirmed Stinnes was a plant and he was faking his sickness throughout his entire custody. Weak but anticlimactic chapter. The exchange goes south and there’s a gunfight at the train station. Pavel is dead and Bret is hurt.
Chapter thirty closes on a real dull note. Stinnes is a hero back home. Bret is about to die. Pavel has a Russian bullet in him too, meaning KGB set up the whole exchange just to kill Pavel. Frank has been asked to stay in Berlin desk for two more years if he still wants that knighthood. Bernie is no longer a suspect to MI5. Bernie and Werner debate who really won. Werner says Fiona played everyone, Bernie said it’s just another day. No one ever wins.
Anticlimactic ending but otherwise great book. Really, it was just an oversaturation of conspiracies. It began to overwhelm the reader and then the ending becomes just as desirable as the truth. Some people eat food to taste things, and some people eat food to fill up their stomach. This book began like the former and ended with the latter. However long it takes, it will be too long until the debrief of the next Len Deighton novel.
