London Match

November 1, 1985
Winding up the tense story begun in Berlin Game and continued in Mexico Set, Deighton's new thriller follows British intelligence agent Bernard Samson as he careens between troubled spots in Berlin and London. Bernard's recent triumph is persuading the KGB's renowned spy Erich Stennis to defect to England but, since Samson's wife Fiona has gone over to the Russians, he isn't entirely trusted by his colleagues. Now suspicions that another mole has been planted among the operatives in London exacerbate Samson's fears, mostly for his small children, if he is accused. Determined to protect himself from his own fellow workers and the wily plots of Fiona and the KGB, Samson plunges into harrowing situations, climaxing in a bloody battle which both sides claim they've won. Actually, as Samson reveals, everybody loses in the deadly game of espionage. 100,000 first printing; Literary Guild selection. January 3

We are back in the days of the Cold War in this final book in Len Deighton's Game, Set and Match trilogy. Robert Whitfield's reading of LONDON MATCH will have the listener wishing that the great espionage game had gone on forever. Whitfield's narrative voice is easy, his voices true and unvarying. British Whitfield handles Deighton's multinational cast effortlessly--even when they all appear together in a scene. Admittedly, Whitfield makes children sound like Land of Oz munchkins, but that's a minor quibble. Instead concentrate on Bernard Samson as he moves between West Berlin and London, trying to survive cross and double cross. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine