London Match

A Bernard Sampson Novel

By: Len Deighton

Narrated by: James Lailey

Bernard Samson suspects there is a traitor within his department of MI6. A jaded but highly skilled British intelligence agent nearing the end of his career, Samson already got KGB major Eric Stinnes to defect. But when a British KGB agent makes a sweeping confession with a suspicious undertone, the finger points straight back to London—where Stinnes is locked up, refusing to talk.

The spy who’s in the clear doesn’t exist. In the spec­tacular third novel in Len Deighton’s Game, Set, Match trilogy, will Samson make the winning move?

©1985 Pluriform Publishing Company BV. Afterword copyright © 2010 by Pluriform Publishing Company BV. (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Critic reviews

“An intricate and satisfying plot, peopled with convincing characters…He is a master of the form.” —Washington Post

Intriguing end to the first trilogy.

Len Deighton creates historical fiction that is frighteningly believable. I have read all three trilogies at least twice. The way Deighton weaves it all together makes him a master storyteller. The audiobook version has a terrific reader too. I can’t wait for Audible to pick up the sequel trilogies.

Very Enjoyable series

I appreciated the author’s ability to keep the reader informed as they traveled through the twist and turns of the story

Like being in a long, long meeting

Although the plot is intricate, most of the book takes place as conversations between players. Deighton explains, in an afterword, how he developed the plot partly from information obtained from former MI-5 and MI-6 personnel. It rings incredibly true--in the way long, tedious meetings are a fact of life in corporations--and yet it's really not propulsive. Very little action actually takes place. It makes you realize that the life of a spy or secret agent can be incredibly mind-numbing and tedious, laden with the quotidian and lacking the poetic. James Bond this ain't.