Secret File Series by Len Deighton

When a number of scientists mysteriously disappear in Berlin, a seemingly straightforward case rapidly becomes a journey to the heart of a deadly conspiracy--a conspiracy that will test Deighton's working-class hero to the limits of his ingenuity and resolve. To come out alive, he'll have to prove himself a spy at the very top of his game.

The unnamed hero of this novel smokes Gauloise cigarettes and is serious about good coffee. He spent part of WW II in Portugal. He and his boss Dawlish work in a secret branch of the War Office called W.O.O.C (P), located in a shabby building in Charlotte Street in London. They will reappear in later books... moreThe unnamed hero of this novel smokes Gauloise cigarettes and is serious about good coffee. He spent part of WW II in Portugal. He and his boss Dawlish work in a secret branch of the War Office called W.O.O.C (P), located in a shabby building in Charlotte Street in London. They will reappear in later books. In this novel, the hero is sent on a diving course in preparation for a venture that might yield a lot of possibly counterfeited money from a sunken German WW II submarine, which could be invested discreetly, in a group planning to overthrow the then-ruling Salazar dictatorship in Portugal. Its principal locations are London and Albufeira in Portugal’s Algarve.Apart from diving 40 meters deep, the hero is trying to find out what is really at stake. And why him to find out? Claustrophobics should skip the probes of the dark interior of the massive U-Boot. Before and during the dives, the hero is tailed, his messages are intercepted, and some of the associates forced on him die violent deaths. His mission objectives are vague and remain so. What is going on? Who is behind it all? No one seems to be who he claims to be. And some local connections go back to WW II, even to the Spanish civil war. Even the horse under water is not a horse... less

FUNERAL IN BERLIN is a spellbinding tale of espionage and its counter in which double and triple crosses are common. Berlin with its infamous wall symbolized the Cold War as did no other place. It was like theatre, but is war for real."Len Deighton has always been fascinated with the Cold War in a way that could be called scholarly...one always feels that the intricacies of espionage and of the Soviet Union's spy apparatus rest on serious research. And he writes with effortless mastery... moreFUNERAL IN BERLIN is a spellbinding tale of espionage and its counter in which double and triple crosses are common. Berlin with its infamous wall symbolized the Cold War as did no other place. It was like theatre, but is war for real."Len Deighton has always been fascinated with the Cold War in a way that could be called scholarly...one always feels that the intricacies of espionage and of the Soviet Union's spy apparatus rest on serious research. And he writes with effortless mastery." (The Wall Street Journal)"A most impressive book, a chronicle of our times, in which the tension, more like a chronic ache than a stab of pain, never lets go." (The London Evening Standard) less