Originally published on my blog here in July 2004.The second of an (otherwise unrelated) trio of Deighton novels concerned with the Second World War, XPD is actually set in 1979, contemporary with its writing. It is close as Deighton has got to the idea driven thrillers of Frederick Forsyth, and has many similarities to The Odessa File, published almost a decade earlier. It deals with a plot by a group of former SS officers to sieze power in Germany. Their plans are based around the publication of some Third Reich documents about a secret meeting between Hitler and Churchill in June 1940, in which Churchill offered a British ceasefire on terms that would destroy his reputation, if known. These papers ended up with a huge consignment of looted gold in a salt mine, and the American soldiers charged with removing it at the end of the war proved to be less than totally honest. They managed to steal enough gold to set up their own private Swiss bank - and they picked up the documents at the same time.The story becomes exceptionally complicated, and in the end is not among Deighton's most plausible plots, even if the original idea was obviously sparked by thoughts about oddities in published details of Churchill's itinerary in June 1940. (We see the central character of XPD carrying out what must be the same research in the middle of the novel.) The SS officers' plot is bizarrely backed by the KGB, something which might have made more sense in the late seventies than it does now, and I found it hard to see how the documents, however scandalous, could cause the kind of chaos in West Germany that would have been needed for the coup. Indeed, it occurs to several of the characters to wonder who precisely would care enough if the meeting became public knowledge. (When one says "It would destroy the Tory party", that does seem to be the most likely consequence, and unpleasant though that may have seemed to Margaret Thatcher, the newly incoming prime minister at the time, I could hardly care less.)The title comes from a subplot; there is clearly a leak exposing details of the British Secret Service investigation into the affair, and at one point the central character of the novel, heading the investigation, wonders if he has possibly been made the subject of an expedient demise order or XPD, which is basically an instruction to kill an agent who has become a liability. This becomes another part of the plot which doesn't quite work for me, as it seems to be a paranoid fantasy and remains unconnected to anything else in the novel for too long.Comparing XPD and The Odessa File does reveal how much better Deighton is at characterisation than Forsyth. The background, whether flashbacks to the forties, the Hollywood film industry or the meeting rooms of Whitehall, is also extremely well done. Were it not for the clunkiness of the plot, this could have been one of Deighton's best novels.
XPD is one of my favorite Len Deighton stories. I'm sure of that because I've read it at least three times, now. It has among the best plot twists of Deighton's novels, but I think the appeal of this one is, atypically, the characters at the center who aren't spies, just poor schlubs who are caught in the middle but who have a fascinating intertwined history and some strength of character and sense of morality. Particularly, and again atypically, the American character Charles Stein, whose girth and gusto might be intimidating in person but are entertainingly depicted in the book. This story doesn't have the first person cynicism of the Bernard Samson books but it does feature the traditional Deighton ingredients of wartime nostalgia, longtime regrets, ever-present danger and uncertainty, and a glimpse of hidden and hard world operating beneath ordinary life,
What do You think about XPD (2009)?
I picked up this 2009 edition at a second-hand book stall somewhere in the UK for some airplane reading, realising that I had probably read it some 30 years ago when it was first published. It's still a ripping spy thriller, although the basic premise of the plot -- that public knowledge of a clandestine wartime meeting between Churchill and Hitler would somehow bring Britain crumbling to its knees -- is rather less believable in 2014 than it might have been in 1981. Not Deighton's best in my view, but still a carefully crafted and highly enjoyable story
—Howard
"XPD": n., also v., stands for "Expedient Demise". Happens to those who find out information that the intelligence community does not want them to know.In this Len Deighton novel, the information that causes XPD orders to be issued is the existence of the so-called "Hitler Minutes" -- reports of a meeting between Churchill and Hitler in 1940 that involved peace negotiations of a nature that would be abhorrent to the Allies. The story follows MI6 agent Boyd Stuart as he works to prevent the documents from being published, and the efforts of the people who have the documents to publish them.The story was all right but this is definitely not one of my favourite Deightons. It takes a while for the Hitler Minutes to even show up, so I was at a bit of a loss at first as to why I should care about the people being discussed, although I did find Sir Sydney Ryden, Boyd's father-in-law and also the Director-General, an amusing character. And the XPDs themselves, when they appear, are sudden and shocking, so full points for the emotional impact. Also full points for plausibility; I was 99% sure that these Hitler Minutes were fictional, but Deighton has a way of making that 1% uncertainty much more persuasive. A very convincing writer indeed.I can already tell this is one I'm going to have to reread, so three stars for now.
—rabbitprincess
This was a suspense thriller that was almost completely lacking in action and suspense. The characters are a melange of good guys (British SIS (aka MI-6) and CIA) and bad guys (Nazis and Russians) but the plot is never really fleshed out. The book concerns some Nazi documents that are hidden at the end of the war (along with a cache of Nazi gold) that have damning evidence of how Churchill tried to sue for peace in the dark days of May 1940. And while this would be an embarrassing admission, it's never quite clear why it's so all-fired important that these documents not come out. After all, the war has been over 35 years (at the time of this writing). Trapped in the middle are the remnants of 'Kelly's Heroes'. A platoon of American soldiers that discovered and secreted the documents - along with the gold - and now have both sides after them. The good guys - who want to suppress the release of the documents - and the bad guys - who want to use them to embarrass the good guys and undermine democracy in Europe, especially West Germany.The characters aren't particularly unique or memorable. The writing is competent enough; it's the plot that isn't fully fleshed out. And the book is also lacking in the tradecraft and technical details that make for a compelling espionage thriller.
—Alain Dewitt
