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Len Deighton

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Berlin Game (Samson Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Len Deighton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 3,261 ratings

Book 1 of 9: Samson

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Long-awaited reissue of the first part of the classic spy trilogy, GAME, SET and MATCH, when the Berlin Wall divided not just a city but a world.

East is East and West is West – and they meet in Berlin…

He was the best source the Department ever had, but now he desperately wanted to come over the Wall. ‘Brahms Four’ was certain a high-ranking mole was set to betray him. There was only one Englishman he trusted any more: someone from the old days.

So they decided to put Bernard Samson back into the field after five sedentary years of flying a desk.

The field is Berlin.

The game is as baffling, treacherous and lethal as ever…

Book 1 of 9

Samson
Length

435
Pages
Language

EN
English
Kindle feature

Sticky notes
On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

HarperCollins
Publication date

2010
June 4
File size

1.2 MB
Kindle feature

Page Flip
Enabled
Kindle feature

Word Wise
Enabled
Kindle feature

Enhanced typesetting
Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

From AudioFile

In the first of Len Deighton's espionage sextet, he introduces his enduring spy hero, Bernard Samson. Not only is Deighton setting up characters who go through the entire series, but Daneman must also set a vocal style for each of Samson's Berlin friends and English co-patriots. Daneman succeeds masterfully. His lively characterizations of the elegant Silas Gaunt, irritating Dicky Cruyer and mercurial Werner Volkmann are a delight. The dialogue is lively with each character's voice wholly distinct. As often happens at the end, one wants more time with these characters--and there is. R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Each scene in this story is so adroitly realized that it creates its own suspense. --Newsweek

The smoothness with which narrator Robert Whitfield handles the wide array of foreign accents adds an international flavor to this suspenseful espionage thriller. --Library Journal

Deighton's best novel to date - sharp, witty and sour, like Raymond Chandler adapted to British gloom and the multiple betrayals of the private spy. --Observer --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

‘Deighton’s best novel to date - sharp, witty and sour, like Raymond Chandler adapted to British gloom and the multiple betrayals of the private spy’
Observer

‘Sheer consistent rightness page after page after page’
The Times

‘Virtuoso top level performance’
Guardian

‘A masterly performance, much the best thing Deighton has done since SS-GB’
Sunday Times

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Born in London, Len Deighton served in the RAF before graduating from the Royal College of Art (which recently elected him a Senior Fellow). While in New York City working as a magazine illustrator he began writing his first novel, The Ipcress File, which was published in 1962. He is now the author of more than thirty books of fiction and non-fiction. At present living in Europe, he has, over the years, lived with his family in ten different countries from Austria to Portugal.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

When a valuable agent behind the Iron Curtain signals he wants out, it's up to Bernard Samson, once active in the field but now anchored to a London desk, to undertake the crucial rescue. But soon, Samson is confronted with evidence that there is a traitor among his colleagues. And to find out who it is, he must sift through layers of lies and follow a web of treachery from London to Berlin until hero and traitor collide.
"Each scene in this story is so adroitly realized that it creates its own suspense."
NEWSWEEK

From the Paperback edition.

--This text refers to the audio_download edition.

From Library Journal

The smoothness with which narrator Robert Whitfield handles the wide array of foreign accents adds an international flavor to this suspenseful espionage thriller. One of Britain's most valued and productive spies wants to defect to the West after decades of service. He has requested that Bernard Samson, a veteran British intelligence agent who now enjoys the safety of his senior level desk job, help him escape. Samson is obliged to undertake the project since the spy saved his life when he was a field agent in East Berlin long ago. When Samson discovers evidence that the KGB has infiltrated British intelligence, he knows he must move quickly to return to Cold War-era East Berlin before his colleague's identity is exposed. Deighton's (Spy Sinker, Audio Reviews, LJ 4/15/95) dignified narrative style gives the program a properness that is characteristic of high-level government proceedings. A worthwhile purchase for most public libraries.?Mark P. Tierney, Charles Cty. Pub. Schs., Waldorf, MD
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the audio_download edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003P9XE0Q
Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins; Reissue edition (June 4, 2010)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 4, 2010
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1236 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 435 pages

Customer Reviews:
4.4 3,261 ratings

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Desert Rat

Read all 10 (not 9) books

Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2017

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If you like this book you will want to read the entire Samson series so this review is just a few notes on the series as a whole. The complete series in order of publication is:
-Berlin Game / Mexico Set / London Match
-Winter
-Spy Hook / Spy Line / Spy Sinker
-Faith / Hope / Charity

This is the order I read them when first published but I recently re-read them with Winter first. Winter is a sort of prequel but could be stand alone or omitted, however I think it should be included to set the tone/ambience for the setting, namely Berlin.which could be considered one of the major characters.

Superficially this a spy story but at a deeper level it is a soap opera/ family saga involving people who just happen to be spies. Except for Winter and Spy Sinker each book is written in first person from the point of view of Bernard Samson. Spy Sinker is written in third person in order to reveal certain events and action that are hidden from Samson and the reader. By the time you reach this volume you will likely be quite sympathetically engaged with the character Samson so in a sense Spy Sinker is a "spoiler" -and some what flat and unengaging but serves the function making the ambiance even darker -thus should not be omitted.

If you were born too young to remember the Cold War the series will most likely be just entertain as a good read. If you are older and especially if you were a British or American who spent a significant part of your formative years in a military family living in West Germany you may find yourself identifying with Samson even if your experience was much tamer than his.

22 people found this helpful

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maurice jensen

Chilly suspense during the Cold War!

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2016

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I've read this many moons ago, and rarely go back to the scene of the crime, particularly when I knew who was the mole. But I'd just read the Harry Palmer quartet and was in full Len Deighton mode. I wanted more challenging, gripping, espionage. Set during The Cold War.

Berlin Game did not disappoint. Deighton reads like a younger, non-public school, spymaster,his ability coming through as slight contempt for the hoorays of the Establishment.

The end is a glorious cliffhanger, clearly indicating there's more to come in the three further books in this series.

No wonder I was hooked on this stuff-especially as from 1969 on I went behind Communist borders for my summer holidays. I used to leave the latest Le Carre or Deighton on the rear parcel shelf as part of the Border Game wind up, but apart from the usual shouting and gesticulating there border boys didn't rise to the bait!

Now I live just outside Prague, permanently and legally, and am grateful that Progress has delivered plenty of enjoyable books to read.!

As I write this the temperature outside is struggling up from -17%C and will be perfect for the next book, set in warmer climes!

12 people found this helpful

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W. L. Ohm

Berlin Game

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2023

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The book came as described. So, I have no complaints. And It arrived a day early.

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Bradley West

A tour de force Cold War thriller

Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2016

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What a great start to the Bernd Samson series, so much so that my appetite for more titles sustained me through the very good "Mexico Set" and then the less intriguing "London Match". Like many of Deighton's works, his deep knowledge of Berlin gives the reader a you-are-there experience. The complex relationships in head office, his doubts about his wife and the pressure of the field all play credibly through Samson's mind.

Meanwhile, there's a British mole to be extracted from the East while there's growing evidence of MI-6 having their own Soviet agent in their midst. Samson's in the middle of a taut psychological and physical thriller, and the reader might find herself reading past bedtime before it's over.

* * * *

Back in the 1960s, Pete Townsend wrote a yet-to-be-released song that he described to an industry reporter as pure, raw, rock and roll. (I think it was "Don't Get Fooled Again".) Paul McCartney read the interview, and decided to write one of his own, "Helter Skelter." I imagine Deighton reading the rave reviews of le Carre's Karla trilogy of the mid-1970s, watching Alec Guinness bring George Smiley to life on the Beeb, and deciding he could create his own intricate trilogy. "Berlin Game" is as good as le Carre's Smiley books, which are as good as anyone has ever written the modern espionage novel

5 people found this helpful

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Blu

EDGY.

Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2023

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Convoluted escapades of a British intelligence operator and the unpredictable espionage characters/plots affecting his survival. Ultimately, the high cost of vanity.

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1monkey

Classic spy tale, set when the Berlin wall was up between East and West Berlin.

Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2015

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This was the first book that I have read by this author. I was not sure what to expect. I found it got better the further into it I read, and I really
enjoyed the unfolding of the plot through the protagonist's view. This was a classic spy tale, set in the past, but allowing us a pretty realistic view of that world. I found the characters interesting, with spare and concise descriptions. It was pretty neat to see the plot unfold a bit at a time. I did suspect the ending ahead of time, but there were enough questions not to be sure how it would end. I am going to read the next book and hope that it is as interesting as this one was. It was a great picture of history, as well. I would recommend it.

Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2017

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This is the first book of a nine part series. When you think about Germany and the wall and do not remember the history. This is the book to read. It tells holds your imagination in a way that you are there seeing, feeling berlin in that time period and the British Secret Service, of which Bernard Samson is part of. All the aspects of his life as a boy and now a married man. His friends, his wife, his family and all the sinister people and plots going on. The setup of a Russian mole in the British Secret Service. I know this book was published in 1983 and the cover in 2010. This is a timely book and story. You will enjoy this book and the addition eight books. Each set is a trilogy Game, Set Match. Hook, Line, Sinker, Faith, Hope and Charity.
I have read the entire set a couple of years ago and wanted to Berlin Game again. I am so glad I did Len Deighton write a book so easy to read, yet the spy craft then and today is the same. The spy story whether Russian or other countries is the long game.

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

wrinkled weasel

This was my first Len Deighton book, but it will not be the last

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 7, 2021

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I don't always give five stars, but when I do, there are good reasons. The author plays us poor readers like a Stradivarius. And yet, at the end you will not only be satisfied, you know you knew but dare not believe it.
Bernard Samson is a quintessentially British product; ambivalent about personal relationships, tight lipped, self-made, bad with money, sensitised to failure, etc. He's good at what he does - very good, in fact too good. Unfortunately he is used and abused by nearly everybody in the story and one way or another they all treat him rather badly. He does not fit in and in most social circles he is the fish out of water, constantly reminded by his colleagues that he never went to Oxbridge. Samson weathers it with a sense of humour and a kind of detachment and caution that keeps his mind on the job and the quest for the traitor in his ranks.

This all plays on a different instrument to the likes of Le Carre. For a start it is written from the hero's point of view. apart from one book, and of course is therefore an intimate read. Among other things it is about the conflict of relationships - in this case the relationships with his friends and colleagues in the secret intelligence community. One of the things I enjoyed was the subtlety with which Bernard Samson discloses or does not disclose information to those around him. It gives the reader some reassurance that, whatever happens, he is mostly in command of more knowledge than anyone around him suspects.

It is impossible to delve deeper or it would give the game away, but it is one of the most expertly crafted spy stories I have had the pleasure of reading in a long time.
Edit.
I have now read the whole nine books...twice!
If you are coming to this fresh, you are in for a big treat. For me, the characters began talking to me, engaging with me and making me quite emotional - something that rarely happens for me. At the end of the books I wanted to tell Len Deighton what a swine he was. To ask him why he gets Bernard Samson gets a good kicking on a regular basis? Is it because because Len Deighton likes to do this? I also wanted to berate him for what he does to Fiona. It is unforgivable.
The books almost qualify for the epithet bildungsroman, and ironically a lot of the narrative is set in Germany. Almost but not quite. The characters stay more or less the same but what is done to them lays who and what they are to the bone.
In essence, if you are expecting a good spy story you will get a good spy story. But this set, taken as a whole, is a novel by any other name, with all the complexity that comes with literature. Nothing is what it seems. Don't trust Bernard Samson (he never knows the whole truth), don't trust Fiona or Brett or Silas and in particular don't trust that bloke Deighton who claims to have invented them.

It's that good.

25 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

sheer brilliance

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 25, 2023

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This is a book that has so many layers that - for me anyway - it rewards multiple reads. The fact that it is the first of nine books in the series is a bonus.

3 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

The Best Spy Book(s) Ever Written

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 21, 2012

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Having been an ardent fan of John Le Carre, Frederick Forsyth et al all my life I will never forget the moment that I finished this book and discovered that it was part of a series of 9 books following the same characters throughout the cold war. That moment meant that there were 8 more books to read, several holidays worth....Once you are off on book 1 you cannot stop until you have devoured all 9, which will keep you turning pages for some time. It is always great to discover a new author and hence a new back catalogue of books that you will probably like. With this one if you enjoy the first book (and most fans of the genre will) then you have hours more entertainment to enjoy all not just from the same author but the same plot and characters. The 9 books are divided into 3 trilogies: Game, Set & Match. Hook, Line & Sinker. Faith, Hope & Charity. Each is complete as an individual book and each trilogy is complete as a trilogy. It is worth mentioning that although I love this series of books I am not so much of a fan of Len Deighton's other work - so for example if Harry Palmer turns you off then this is still worth a try.

The main character, Bernard, through who's eyes you see the plot unfold, has certain traits in common with Harry Palmer: he's not favoured by the establishment and is something of the underdog in the office, albeit the real hero underneath. I won't spoil the plot for you, but essentially the books rove between London & Berlin, and a few other places in between, with the basic theme being trying to work out who is 'true' and who is a mole (warning: look at the sleeve of any of books 2-9 and it will tell you the outcome of book 1).

Enjoy...

12 people found this helpful

Gareth

A page turner of a spy romp

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 22, 2023

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A spy novel which dragged me along through the pages as le Carres Smiley series did. I will certainly be reading more Len Deighton

One person found this helpful

Mr G.

Not 'classic' Deighton but hard to resist for 99p

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 24, 2021

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Read the series before in paperback, but not for a while so thought I would take advantage of the 99p offer. I don't think the Samson series is as good as the early novels (or indeed books like 'Bomber') but this was a great deal at 99p.

I think the first three books in the series are the strongest, but some of the elements really grate. I always struggled with Deighton naming the much younger love interest of Samson 'Hilda'!

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Berlin Game (Samson Book 1) Kindle Edition

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