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The Billion Dollar Brain

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The man with no name ("Harry Palmer" in the film versions) heads into global trouble in Helsinki, Leningrad, Riga, New York, San Antonio and London. His quary is a deluded, megalomanic nationalist who uses a giant computer and people in an attempt to free the Russian peole of their Soviet oppressors. Len Deighton takes us on a journey to the frozen north and across the pond to the US and back again on a rollercoaster journey filled with his brand of insight and deadpan humor levened with enough intrigue and disbelief to keep you hooked.

This novel is the follow through of Deighton's "The Ipcress File" and "Funeral in Berlin".

Readers either like or dislike the author's prose style and wry humor. Maybe you just need to be in the mood for it. Right now, I am and I like it. Great reading on a hot summer's day.

W.O.O.C.(P) is a discretely-located spying agency of the British Ministry of Defence, headed by a Mr. Dawlish. In "Spy Story" he is the owner of a pre-WW II car, in this book an expert on garden weeds. Its premises in Charlotte Street encompass floor after floor of ostensibly unattractive or failing businesses, behind whose doors the agency works, with the Dispatch Section always booming with brass band music. Dawlish is the only staff member with an office with two windows.
A nameless but likable spy tells his story in the I form. He is sent by Dawlish to Scandinavia to find out more about alleged rumours that could be detrimental to the UK, the US, the Soviet Union, even to world peace. His brief: "Find out more. If possible, infiltrate!" His tour includes Helsinki, Leningrad, Riga, New York and San Antonio, Texas. There he is introduced to the Billion Dollar Brain, a series of mainframe computers purported to have been programmed to prevent human error in intelligence operations. The Brain is owned not by the US government, but by a right-wing organisation headed by a naturalised, former Latvian general. If the planned operation targeting Latvia is successful, rows and rows of other primed and linked mainframes will take on the rest of the Soviet Union...
The (somewhat implausible) plot is nevertheless great, and so are the characters and dialogues. KGB Colonel Stok (who earlier appeared in "Spy Story") catches the nameless hero in the Soviet Union, but realizes he needs him to stay alive to find out more and sends him home. But not before proving his admiration for the British WW II war effort by reciting at length from his favourite writer in English, the 18th-century Scottish poet Robert Burns. The enigmatic, extravert Finnish girl Signe, her American lover Harvey and the spy himself are interesting characters too. Descriptions of the different venues are also authentic.
Len Deighton is also a renowned war historian. The terrible facts included in BDB about Latvian collaboration with Germany during WW II and its eagerness to play the role of executioner on its behalf, is most probably based on fact. Latvians, especially, should read and enjoy this book and provide comments.

This novel is the follow through of Deighton's "The Ipcress File" and "Funeral in Berlin".A really good read that is good standalone but better if read chronologically.

I saw the movie of the same title first and was disappointed by some of the plot. The book is much more intelligent than the somewhat predictable movie Ken Russell directed.

Signe Laine and Harvey Newbegin are both very memorable characters. "Harry"'s interaction with Dawlish is fun, as always and the little portraits of other characters such as Harvey's wife and General Midwinter are insightful, too. It's a fun and intelligent read.