The Queue
I've been reading the Bernard Samson trilogy of trilogies since September of last year, seven full months. (Wayback Machine.) The saga concluded as it should have, with an emotionally draining ending that the reader should have seen coming, had he not allowed himself to be blinded by the hope that somehow, someway, everyone would live happily ever after. But that ending would have been a betrayal of everything that had come before, as this reader grudgingly admits. Len Deighton does not given his brilliant, taut, ten-volume tale of espionage, family, love, loyalty, & bloodshed a Hollywood ending; he gives Charity the ending that feels entirely consistent with the beginning of Berlin Game. And now a word from Deighton himself, the author's note from Charity (all titles sic):

The first three books of the Bernard Samson story, Game, Set, and Match, are set in the Cold War period from spring 1983 to spring 1984.

Winter: A Berlin Family 1899-1845 was the next in order of writing. The same places and the same people are to be found in it.

Hook and Line take up the story from the beginning of 1987 and through the summer of that same year. Sinker uses a third-person narrative focusing on Fiona Samson. It tells the story from her point of view and reveals things that Bernard Samson still does not know.

Faith, Hope, and Charity continue the story. Faith starts in California as Bernard's terrible summer of 1987 turns cold. Hope follows it into the last week of 1987. Charity begins in the early days of 1988.

Like all the other books, Charity is written to stand alone, and can be read without reference to the other stories.

I thank my readers for their kindness, their generous encouragement, and their patience. Writing ten books about the same group of people has proven a demanding labor but certainly a labor of love.

—Len Deighton
Portugal, 1996

Berlin Game (1983)
Mexico Set (1984)
London Match (1985)
Winter: A Novel of a Berlin Family (1987)
Spy Hook (1988)
Spy Line (1989)
Spy Sinker (1990)
Faith (1994)
Hope (1995)
Charity (1996)

I'm going to tackle take at least a few days' sabbatical from books before returning with a bit of light fiction & the non-fiction of The Mechanic's Tale (Formula fun!, perfect summer reading) & a bit of light fiction before delving back into the shadowy world of spies & saboteurs.

Recently
Len Deighton, Faith
Len Deighton, Hope
Len Deighton, Charity

Currently
vacation from books
Steve Matchett, The Mechanic's Tale: Life in the Pit-lanes of Formula One

Presently
Karen E. Olson, Driven to Ink
John le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, Solder, Spy
Len Deighton, XPD