LEN DEIGHTON – XPD. Alfred Knopf, hardcover, 1981. Ballantine, paperback, 1982. First published in the UK by Hutchinson, hardcover, 1981.

   Speaking of movies, this is going to be a good one. Stories about World War II, and about the Nazis, and with lots of killing and loads of intrigue — sure fire box-office. And nothing less than Winston Chirchill’s reputation is at stake in this one.

   Here it is, four decades later. Len Deighton’s somber recitation of events may lack a little something in the way of providing the sheer joy of reading that good writing is capable of, but in solid-documentary-like fashion, his main thesis is nothing but convincing.

   At least, it could have happened. In 1941, Churchill could have gone to Germany, hat in hand. He could have offered Hitler concessions in Africa and around the world. To end the war, he could have offered the Nazis joint control of Ireland. Is it fact, or fiction?

   If it were true, emphasis on the if, it would certainly be embarrassing if it were to be found out today. It’s no wonder the secret organizations of at least three countries — no, make it four — desperately want to locate the evidence.

   In the wrong hands, it would shake the world.

   The movie that will be made from the book will probably be mostly flash, with little substance. Deighton’s dry, almost academic style, complete with occasional footnotes, has always seemed just the reverse to me. The action comes in spurts, nor, strangely enough, does it really seem to provide the main thrust of the story.

   You can easily end up reading this almost solely for the characters involved: the British agent whose divorced wife is the daughter of the director general of MI6 and his immediate superior; the Jewish ex-soldier who accidentally stole the documents in question from Hitler’s secret cave, today a successful California businessman whose son is falling for the daughter of an ex-Nazi guard now in the movie business; and that ex-Nazi’s superior, the spy who plays it three ways against the middle.

   The relationships are all a tangle, as you can plainly see. Everyone who enters this world of shadows and sudden violence falls at once into a boggy quagmire of manipulation.

   But, then, that’s what you expect from a Len Deighton spy thriller, and that’s what you get.

   What else can I say, other than he’s done it again?

Rating: B minus.

NOTE. From Wikipedia: “The title is the code used by the Secret Intelligence Service in the novel to refer to assassinations it carries out, short for ‘expedient demise’.”