Spy Novels

The first four novels, featuring an anonymous hero (or anti-hero), are sometimes called the "Harry Palmer" books after the name given to the character in the movies made from three of these books:

• The IPCRESS File [Hodder & Stroughton, London, November 1962 / Simon & Schuster, New York, October 1963].
• Horse Under Water [Jonathan Cape, London, October 1963 / G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, January 1968].
• Funeral in Berlin [Jonathan Cape, London, September 1964 / G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, January 1965].
• Billion Dollar Brain [Jonathan Cape, London, March 1966 / G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, January 1966].

The next spy novel had an obviously different hero, but one who shared many of the interests of the first (and also, of course, of LD):

• An Expensive Place to Die [Jonathan Cape, London, May 1967 / G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, April 1967].

After several other novels LD returned to the spy genre (and a slightly older and softer version of the original anonymous hero) with:

• Spy Story [Jonathan Cape, London, May 1974 / Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, September 1974].

The next spy novel veers away again to a new (though similar) hero, with some characters in common with "Spy Story".

• Yesterday's Spy [Jonathan Cape, London, May 1975 / Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, October 1975 ].

Once again LD veered back toward the original hero, combined with more recent characters in:

• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy [Jonathan Cape, London, June 1976]. Issued in the USA as Catch a Falling Spy [Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, September 1976].

After several years hiatus, LD returned to the spy genre with the first of the Bernard Samson series; this first trilogy was made into a TV series.

• Berlin Game [Hutchinson, London, October 1983 / Alfred A. Knopf, New York, January 1984].
• Mexico Set [Hutchinson, London, October 1984 / Alfred A. Knopf, New York, February 1985].
• London Match [Hutchinson, London, October 1985 / Alfred A. Knopf, New York, January 1986].
• Game, Set and Match [Hutchinson, London, October 1986] An omnibus edition of this trilogy with a new preface by the author.

LD took time out to write an elaborate "prequel" to the Game ,Set and Match trilogy (see Winter on the Other Novels page). A second trilogy followed:

• Spy Hook [Hutchinson, London / Alfred A. Knopf, New York, December 1988].
• Spy Line [Hutchinson, London / Alfred A. Knopf, New York, December 1989].
• Spy Sinker [Harper Collins, New York, 1990]. Rather different from the earlier books in the series, it is in the third person and retells much of the story from Fiona Samson's point of view.

The end of the cold war brought another hiatus from spy story writing. After several other books LD has returned to it with his third Bernard Samson trilogy:

• Faith [Harper Collins, London and New York, 1994]
• Hope [Harper Collins, London and New York, 1995]
• Charity [Harper Collins, London and New York, November 1996]

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tomlin@linus.socs.uts.edu.au / Last modified: 14 Apr 1999