Faith

Rating:
Summary: Dour Samson goes it alone
Review: "Faith" is the first of a trilogy in the long -running drama of Bernard Samson, British agent, loner and habitual skeptic.

The time is late 1987. Reunited with his wife, Fiona, after her successful mission in East Germany has leapfrogged her ahead of him up the intelligence hierarchy, Samson still chafes at being kept out of the loop by his wife.

As revealed in the previous trilogy, Fiona's defection to the communists was an elaborate ruse, and her husband was among those successfully hoodwinked.
Brooding over his relations with Fiona and his feelings and obligations toward Gloria, the young woman who came into his life during his wife's absence, Samson takes on a dicey mission in East Germany. A Russian military man wants to defect and has requested Samson as his contact.

Samson's unease is quickly justified as he and his inexperienced assistant arrive at the meeting point to discover a dead man - their Russian, apparently, has been assassinated.

With his usual flair for nightime chases and crafty double-crossing, Deighton mixes personal agendas with political maneuvering. Friends, lovers and colleagues lie and few things are what they seem on the surface.

Samson ducks his own agency in order to follow his instincts and, against his better judgment, gets mixed up in two mysteries - the odd circumstances surrounding Fiona's sister's death, and the equally peculiar, if unconnected, circumstances around the killing that ended his East Berlin mission.

In setting up this new trilogy Deighton poses questions about Fiona's stability as well as the future of the Samson marriage and the fate of Gloria, Samson's appealing lover. The political picture is even murkier and the book ends with most of its mysteries intact.

Although this and all other books in the Samson series are meant to stand alone, readers unfamiliar with earlier volumes may have difficulty understanding motives and some of the subtly barbed dialogue. Deighton fans should enjoy the atmosphere and dialogue although Samson's dour personality has become a trifle grating.

Rating:
Summary: Dour Samson goes it alone
Review: "Faith" is the first of a trilogy in the long -running drama of Bernard Samson, British agent, loner and habitual skeptic.

The time is late 1987. Reunited with his wife, Fiona, after her successful mission in East Germany has leapfrogged her ahead of him up the intelligence hierarchy, Samson still chafes at being kept out of the loop by his wife.

As revealed in the previous trilogy, Fiona's defection to the communists was an elaborate ruse, and her husband was among those successfully hoodwinked.
Brooding over his relations with Fiona and his feelings and obligations toward Gloria, the young woman who came into his life during his wife's absence, Samson takes on a dicey mission in East Germany. A Russian military man wants to defect and has requested Samson as his contact.

Samson's unease is quickly justified as he and his inexperienced assistant arrive at the meeting point to discover a dead man - their Russian, apparently, has been assassinated.

With his usual flair for nightime chases and crafty double-crossing, Deighton mixes personal agendas with political maneuvering. Friends, lovers and colleagues lie and few things are what they seem on the surface.

Samson ducks his own agency in order to follow his instincts and, against his better judgment, gets mixed up in two mysteries - the odd circumstances surrounding Fiona's sister's death, and the equally peculiar, if unconnected, circumstances around the killing that ended his East Berlin mission.

In setting up this new trilogy Deighton poses questions about Fiona's stability as well as the future of the Samson marriage and the fate of Gloria, Samson's appealing lover. The political picture is even murkier and the book ends with most of its mysteries intact.

Although this and all other books in the Samson series are meant to stand alone, readers unfamiliar with earlier volumes may have difficulty understanding motives and some of the subtly barbed dialogue. Deighton fans should enjoy the atmosphere and dialogue although Samson's dour personality has become a trifle grating.

Rating:
Summary: left me wanting to read the next book "Hope"
Review: I don't particularly like spy novels, but I really enjoyed this book. I just finished "Faith" and I can't wait to read the next book. I found it easy to read and follow, which in my opinion is the drawback of most spy novels-the plot too convoluted and tiresome. This book is well worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Spy Stories
Review: Len Deighton is the master when it comes to Trilogy spy stories. One cannot help but pull for Bernard Sampson (and Werner) as he enters a new adventure in the almost long forgottton "Cold War". If you have enjoyed Deighton's other works, you will no doubt enjoy this book and the others to follow.

Rating:
Summary: Best of the 10
Review: My favorite in the entire series! Faith lacks the action/suspense of earlier works but attains near-perfect distillation of Samson's dry humor and solitary perspective. I laughed out loud repeatedly. I suspect the humor is all the more enjoyable having waded through pages and pages of the earlier books to wring out mere droplets of Samson's bitingly funny sarcasm. The journey here makes it all the better. Of course, I am biased; Deighton can do no wrong in my eyes.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the first trilogy, but pretty good.
Review: The books are getting very mealoncholy. Bernard still loves Gloria and his wife, but is torn between them. His wife is a wreck and he's practicaly being forced to take her back. Also Deighton confuses the reader because now Fiona's dead sister may be alive in a Stasi prison. Still even though the plots gone down hill the next novels worth checking out to see what happens to Bernard.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the first trilogy, but pretty good.
Review: The books are getting very mealoncholy. Bernard still loves Gloria and his wife, but is torn between them. His wife is a wreck and he's practicaly being forced to take her back. Also Deighton confuses the reader because now Fiona's dead sister may be alive in a Stasi prison. Still even though the plots gone down hill the next novels worth checking out to see what happens to Bernard.

Rating:
Summary: unbeleivably good
Review: The three trilogies written by len deighton about Bernard Samson are second to none. They are gripping, from start to end.

Although nowhere near as good as the first 2 trilogies, faith hope and charity is still a fantastic set of books, and deserves nothing less than 5stars.

I only started reading spy game last week, and already I have finished all 9 books ... and will probably re-read them all again sometime soon.

They really are fantastic! no matter what type of book you are interested in (I prefer lawyer and detective stories) you will just love all 9 of these books!!

Rating:
Summary: Nothing New
Review: This is a new book in a series that gives you the tried and true. The style and pace continue into this new series and the characters are known. I would like to make the observation that maybe this is the last set, they have been getting a bit darker and slower as they go. The one thing that disappointed me is that there does not seem to be anything to new, sure we have different story line, but overall you know what is going to happen. This is an easy, comfortable book that does not surprise you, but delivers a good enough story. I am sure the die in the wool fans will love it.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing New
Review: This is a new book in a series that gives you the tried and true. The style and pace continue into this new series and the characters are known. I would like to make the observation that maybe this is the last set, they have been getting a bit darker and slower as they go. The one thing that disappointed me is that there does not seem to be anything to new, sure we have different story line, but overall you know what is going to happen. This is an easy, comfortable book that does not surprise you, but delivers a good enough story. I am sure the die in the wool fans will love it.