Spy Story
First edition
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| Author | Len Deighton |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Raymond Hawkey |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Spy novel |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
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Publication date
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1974 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 224 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 3207715 |
| 823/.9/14 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.D324 Sp PR6054.E37 |
| Preceded by | Close-Up (1972) |
| Followed by | Yesterday's Spy (1975) |
Spy Story is a 1974 spy novel by Len Deighton, which features minor characters from his earlier novels The IPCRESS File, Funeral in Berlin, Horse Under Water, and Billion Dollar Brain.
In common with several of his other early novels, the chapter headings have a "feature". In Spy Story these take the form of excerpts from the fictional Studies Centre's rules.
As in the earlier "Unnamed hero" novels, we never learn the protagonist's real name, only that he is living under the name Pat Armstrong. Armstrong works for the Studies Centre in London, where various tactical wargame scenarios are played out with computer assistance, using the latest intelligence data on Soviet electronic warfare capabilities.
We also learn in passing that Armstrong is in his late 30s, and that he formerly worked for an unnamed intelligence organization which may well be the WOOC(P) of the earlier books - Dawlish, the head of WOOC(P) in the earlier novels, appears as a character, where it is revealed that he was Armstrong's superior. An additional character from earlier novels is Soviet KGB Colonel Oleg Stok.
The story opens with Armstrong and his colleague Ferdy Foxwell returning from a six-week mission aboard a nuclear submarine during which they gathered data on Soviet communications and electronic warfare techniques in the Arctic Ocean. He and Foxwell visit "The Bonnet", a rural Scottish public house. On returning to London, Armstrong's car breaks down on his way home and he decides to use the phone in his old flat, for which he still has the key. He is surprised and disturbed to discover that the flat has been refurnished, including photographs which he owns, but with an unknown individual replacing him in the images, and clothes identical to his own. He also discovers a door hidden in the back of the wardrobe leading into the adjoining flat, which has been fitted out as some kind of medical facility. When he leaves the flat thinking that a taxi he ordered has arrived, he is confronted by Special Branch officers who have a former member of the Studies Centre verify who he is before releasing him.
While they have been away on their six-week mission, the Studies Centre has acquired a new boss, the abrasive American Charles Schlegel, a former Marine Corps Colonel. Foxwell and Schlegel do not get on at all well, and even less so when Schlegel makes Armstrong his Personal Assistant.
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