MEXICO SET by Len Deighton

 Refinished Mo 4/17/23

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I first completed We 4/6/16- "after $55 visit from Dick Van Dyke to 'unlock' countertop induction range". God, how I hated that appliance and I still can't believe that this was touted as such a fantastic piece of equipment. It wasn't!

This novel is about governmental intelligence services and how they actually work. Not like  James Patterson or Ian Fleming novels that are driven by plot, but this is more of a character study of the neurotic, bored, middle aged white men (and women) that work in secret to keep their nations safe.

Bernard Sampson works for British Intelligence and his wife has recently defected to the Russians. He was married to Fiona for twelve years and they had two children and Bernard had no idea that she was a major Russian asset. Now Bernard is put in charge of a plan to 'enroll' a major player in Russia's intelligence operation and bring him to the west. 

The novel is a second in the Sampson Trilogy; 'BERLIN GAME', 'MEXICO SET', and 'LONDON MATCH'.

From a reader at Goodreads:

"Having loved, “Berlin Game,” I was keen to read the second Bernie Samson novel. “Mexico Set,” sees Bernie, and Dickie Cruyer, in Mexico. They are there to persuade a senior KGB agent, Erich Stinnes, to defect. As always, though, life is never uncomplicated in Bernie’s life and Stinnes works for Fiona, Bernie’s wife, who was found to be a KGB agent in the previous novel.

Previously seen as an outsider, due largely to his class, and education, Bernie is now viewed with greater suspicion. Those in London suspect he knew of Fiona’s disloyalty and even suspect him of involvement. As this novel veers between London, Mexico City (‘they call it, ‘Mexico’ Bernie’ drawls Dickie, before leaving Bernie and heading off to California) and Berlin. All of the characters we met in the previous novel are her too, as well as some new names. There is Bernie’s old school friend, Werner, and his young, ambitious wife, Zerna. There are those in London – Brett and Cruyer – and there is Henry Tiptree, Dickie’s young friend, who seems to pop up all over the place.

One of the things I love about these books are the characters and the sense of realism. Although he is a spy, Bernie still has to deal with his children, financial troubles, a domineering father in law and a jealous brother in law. There are also the complicated feelings he has to Fiona and the sense that all is not quite what it seems… I cannot wait to read on and find out more of Bernie’s story".

From the novel's page at Wikipedia:

"Mexico Set is a 1984 spy novel by Len Deighton. It is the second novel in the first of three trilogies about Bernard Samson, a middle-aged and somewhat jaded intelligence officer working for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Mexico Set is part of the Game, Set and Match trilogy, being preceded by Berlin Game and followed by London Match. This trilogy is followed by the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy and the final Faith, Hope and Charity trilogy. Deighton's novel Winter (1987) is a prequel to the nine novels, covering the years 1900-1945 and providing the backstory to some of the characters.

Mexico Set continues the story that began with Berlin Game, where Bernard Samson's wife Fiona was unmasked as a KGB double agent.

The story begins in Mexico, where Samson is on the trail of his Soviet opposite number: Erich Stinnes, a KGB major working in East Germany whom London Central wishes to coax over to the West.

The task of laying the delicate and elaborate groundwork for Stinnes' defection propels Samson from Mexico to London, Paris, Berlin, and the East-West border. What happens along the way—a temporary abduction, an unnecessary murder, an inconvenient suicide—happens so fast that Samson hardly seems able to keep London Central informed of developments. Or is it that Samson wants to keep his colleagues in the dark? Certainly London Central's entire senior staff—from Samson's immediate supervisors, locked in their endless internecine office warfare, to the dotty Director-General himself—would have reason to suspect that Samson might be working for the other side. He was, after all, closer than any of the other to the former traitor-in-their-midst.

And Samson himself is losing control—indeed, events seem to be controlling him. As he finds himself in a series of ever more incriminating positions, as one by one the avenues of escape or vindication close before him, the novel winds back toward Mexico.. and toward the astonishing climax - at the scene of the defection Samson has so painstakingly orchestrated—in which the allegiances of all involved are finally and fatefully revealed."