2004-05-27 Circles Within Circles

The hard part about Deighton's trilogies is that they leave the reader hanging between books, dying for the next one. Charity does not resolve everything, but it certainly takes care of a lot of the dangling questions.

The plot complications invite paranoia. It seems like nothing is ever what it appears to be. The only constant is that Bernard continues to play the role of the unwitting dupe in others' ploys. Since he is a good and thoughtful person, that quality pulls us away from having sympathy for the spymasters who dream up the plans to go awry so often. It raises the rather nice question of how far the means can and should go to justify the end.

Will we ever have enough of the Cold War and its espionage? Perhaps not. If so, we are fortunate that Len Deighton has written this book.

If you have not read the earlier Bernard Samson novels, I strongly urge you to begin at the beginning with Winter. You'll have two advantages that way: You will appreciate the plot development better, having known of the prior complications; and you won't have to wait for the next book to come out. If you follow this advice, I envy you. You have a lot of fun reading ahead!