This is the second in Len Deighton's 'nameless spy' series. (The notion that they're narrated by a real spy recounting real cases that have become unclassified is supported by his never saying his name in the books. In the movies based on some of the books, he's called Harry Palmer.) This was fun, mainly thanks to the narrator's lightly comic style. As a thriller, it might not satisfy modern fans of that genre - there are thrills, but there are also lengthy sequences of good non-thrill storytelling, involving the interactions between the hero and the team he leads in the search of a sunken German U-boat, and the various parties who take an occasionally homicidal interest in the search. At the start of the book the hero has to take a Navy training course in diving. It's much more effective for suspense to make the hero a novice who's only just learned how to dive, than to make him the effortless expert in everything that less thoughtful thrillers would.The core idea of the book is that spying is a thinking job, not a feeling one. The hero refuses to behave like a spy in a spy story, sometimes to the distaste of his more warm-blooded colleagues. When his secretary/girlfriend Jean expresses a desire for revenge against their friend's killer:'I'll forget that you spoke.' I looked at her for a moment, then said, 'If you want to keep working in the department you'll never even think a thing like that, let alone say it. There is no room for heroics, vendettas and associated melodramas in an efficient shop. You stand up, get shot at, then carry on quietly. [...] Don't desire vengeance or think that if someone murders you tomorrow we will be tracking them down mercilessly. We won't. We'll all be strictly concerned with keeping out of the News of the World and the Police Gazette.'I liked the new boss of WOOC(P), Dawlish. The hero takes so much pleasure in watching Dawlish manipulate the bureaucracy, he could almost lose his cred as the rebellious chippy anti-establishment spy hero. Fortunately there's a slimy cabinet minister for him to be suitably disrespectful to.'No one owns a spy, mister,' I told him, 'they just pay his salary. I work for the government because I think this is a good place to live, but that doesn't mean that I'll be used as a serf by a self-centred millionaire.'
I found Len Deighton's Horse Under Water to be an entertaining and fun read. Chock-full of smelly French cigarettes, countless cups of Nescafé, a few ex-Nazis, a few British fascists, an eccentric American expatriate, and the ubiquitous sexy blond, Horse Under Water covers all the bases. Most of the action takes place in a small Salazar-era Portuguese fishing village. Deighton makes use of a handy appendix to further explain several plot twists. He writes in the first person from the perspective of the anonymous secret agent. This agent tells a tale revolving around the contents of a submerged WWII era German submarine located off the Portuguese coast. I especially enjoyed Deighton's wry sense of humor. The following excerpt features his description of an exchange between the protagonist and a Berber beggar. A man with a face like a half-eaten bar of Aero chocolate wanted money for showing us a seat on the almost deserted train. In exchange for for my declining to play my part in this transaction he taught me some new Arabic verbs.Horse Under Water is a witty fast paced adventure well worth the pocket change that it probably costs in the local used bookstore.
What do You think about Horse Under Water (1984)?
Fatty grilled kidneys and warm bread in Marrakech's souk, jelly filled doughnuts hot from the fryer, warm almond cookies dipped in hot mint tea ... mmmmmmm. So what if Deighton's humor is sometimes puerile, his attitudes occasionally smutty, and his attempts at clever Chandlerisms regrettable ("He was a cool as a Camembert."!?). He's still the only spy writer who's successfully yoked heart-thumping intrigue with broiled spider crab followed by cream of shrimp soup. Read the Horse under Water for its underwater adventure, read it for its dizzying plot, but savor it for its culinary prose. It's a perfect beach read, but don't attempt it until your larder is well stocked. Now I can't wait to find a copy of Deighton's Action Cookbook and finally get a decent recipe for a loaf of kung fu.
—Scott
The anonymous spy in Deighton's first four novels is a Marlowe type moral hero. He is anti-establishment and has symphaty for those who have the misfortune of understanding the otherside's points. Unlike Marlowe, Deighton's spy is a bureaucrat. He is still fighting for the Queen and Country which turns him into an even more of a cynical character than Marlowe. This is not a bad thing as Deighton has a keen eye on bureaucratic maneuvers and inter agency rivalry. Deighton's style is influenced by Chandler but he is not as funny as the great master. On the other hand, Deighton is not deadly serious writer like John le Carre which makes his books much more enjoyable read to the latter's. Nor is Deighton's hero as swinging as portrayed in the great mid-sixties movies starring Michael Caine named as Harry Palmer. What we have in the end is a great cold war spy adventure featuring as cool a bureaucrat as one can get.
—Kimmo Sinivuori
Len Deighton's unnamed spy, first encountered in The Ipcress File, stands somewhere between the OTT hero antics of James Bond and the far more believable and prosaic world of John Le Carre's George Smiley. Horse Under Water is not quite as well known the three that were made into Michael Caine movies which it should be.There is amiss but it makes for the pacing and readability of these books. It's also the time period. Post war Britain and all the attention to a world now sadly gone. Mention of Rootes Group cars, quaint descriptions of IBM compiler machines, French cigarettes, double de-clutching! Its a very evocative read. However, just as in James Bond novels its the food that always gets me! Aroma filled cups of coffee, warm baked bread in Marrakesh, shrimp soup... it goes on and I suppose is to be expected from the author of The Action Cook Book and various other culinary snippets.
—Lesley
