On my way to becoming a crime fiction addict, I took in a healthy dose of thrillers and spy stories, including Cold War tales. SPY STORY by Len Deighton appears in my records 32 years ago.

Fantastic Fiction tells me this was #5 in the Harry Palmer series, published 4 years before I read it.

From the secretive computerized college of war studies in London, via a bleak, sinister Scottish redoubt, to the Arctic ice-cap where nuclear submarines prowl ominously beneath frozen wastes, a lethal web of violence and double-cross is woven. And Europe's whole future hangs by a deadly thread.

Without doubt Deighton's most famous novel was #1 in the Harry Palmer series THE IPCRESS FILE. However there seems to be some doubt about whether the nameless narrator in THE IPCRESS FILE  is in fact Harry Palmer. The film THE IPCRESS FILE starring Michael Caine was made in 1965 and Michael Caine is credited with giving the character his name.

Harry Palmer
1. The Ipcress File (1962)
2. Horse Under Water (1963)
3. Funeral in Berlin (1964)
4. The Billion Dollar Brain (1966)
5. An Expensive Place to Die (1967)
5. Spy Story (1974)
6. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy (1976)
     aka Catch a Falling Spy

 From the Harry Palmer series Deighton moved into
Bernard Samson
1. Berlin Game (1983)
2. Mexico Set (1984)
3. London Match (1985)
4. Spy Hook (1988)
5. Spy Line (1989)
6. Spy Sinker (1990)
7. Faith (1994)
8. Hope (1995)
9. Charity (1996)