The Spy Who Betrayed Me
Review of the Penguin Modern Classics paperback edition (September, 2021) of the original Jonathan Cape hardcover (1975)

Writing books is like a spell on a battlefield. For the first two or three books you survive largely based on luck. After that the odds are against you, and you have to learn quickly and learn by narrow escapes. To construct Yesterday’s Spy I decided to use a second character and thus create a dual leading role. Conan Doyle had shown us how Dr Watson could be a useful tool for explaining facts and theories to the reader. I was right to believe that Yesterday’s Spy would benefit from assigning to ‘Harry Palmer’ a belligerent American boss, Schlegel, but I didn’t include in my calculations the intimacy that would come from sending Harry back to fraternize with his old friends from the Resistance. - excerpt from Len Deighton's 2012 Afterword, also included in the Yesterday's Spy 2021 reprint.

Penguin Modern Classics lists this as the third of four 'Patrick Armstrong' novels, preceded by An Expensive Place to Die (orig. 1967) & Spy Story (orig. 1972) and followed by Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy (orig. 1976). Author Deighton hedges his bets in his 2012 Afterword and acknowledges that many of his readers have taken to naming his bespectacled, otherwise-nameless, spy protagonist as 'Harry Palmer,' after the name used in the Michael Caine films of the earlier books (The IPCRESS File, Funeral in Berlin, etc.), even though that name never appeared in the books themselves.

The later quartet of books doesn't have quite the charm of the earlier ones however. I think this is mostly due to them not having the banter between working-class 'Harry' and his former upper-class boss Dawlish. Yesterday's Spy has the otherwise nameless spy operating under his old World War II Resistance name of 'Monsieur Charles.' He is sent by his current boss, ex-Marine Col. Schlegel in 'The Department,' to resume acquaintance with Steve Champion, a former ally in a French underground resistance network during World War II. Champion now makes his living from arms dealing, and is suspected of selling to terrorists and governments in the Middle East. The concern is that his latest scheme involves nuclear weapons.

Yesterday's Spy has the usual sorts of betrayals and seemingly inexplicable plot turns of the other Deighton books, with all not being explained until the final chapter. It does lean towards several of the James Bond-like tropes of the Ian Fleming books and film adaptations. There is the somewhat charming evil villain. There is the femme fatale. There is the villain's lair which is infiltrated by the hero. There is the somewhat absurd final confrontation of the single hero vs. the overwhelming forces of the bad guys. So it was more of an 'it was ok' sort of book, compared to earlier, more anti-James Bond, type of books.

See cover image at https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1346898814...
Cover image from the original 1975 Jonathan Cape hardcover edition. Image sourced from Goodreads.

Yesterday's Spy is the 7th of my re-reads of the early Len Deightons (I first read almost all of them in the 60's/70's/80's) after having learned of the Penguin Modern Classics republication of all of his novels, which were published during 2021 as outlined in an online article Why Len Deighton's spy stories are set to thrill a new generation (Guardian/Observer May 2, 2021).

Trivia and No Link
Yesterday's Spy did not receive a movie adaptation, unlike several of the other early Deighton novels. ( )

I really couldn't get into this book - I expected exciting twists and turns, but there were so many different character names and bluffs and double bluffs, that I really didn't understand what was going on. I gave up after about 60 pages. ( )

Picked this up in Charlevoix and read it the same day. I had read it ages ago (probably in the 70's), but fortunately had forgotten enough of the plot that I was completely surprised by the twists and turns. Still an outstandingly original take and must read on the "stolen nuclear bomb" theme.

So much more human than James frickin' Superhero Bond. Lenny's one of the best n all. ( )