An Expensive Place to Die (Penguin Modern Classics)

I have read most of the novels by Len Deighton and none have come close to being less than fantastic . This is just another example of his skill.

our hero is now in paris and the usual band of good guys and bad guys but you are never quite sure who is who

Arrived very quickly in good condition and is a classic from the 1960s

very pleased

Len Deighton's prose pops and fizzes with more than enough 1960's swing to provide a fitting last actfor the English Agent With No Name who has smart mouthed his way in 1960's Cold War espionage.The pop-cultural references have dated but they are what gives it such a great sense of period but Deighton'sstyle is as compelling to readers now as it was in 1967.

While written in 1967 and first read then, I found myself re-reading this book on vacation in 2011 and being pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it still was.While a lifelong Len Deighton fan, one has to accept this story of international espionage and sex clinics used for political ends located in Paris now definitely shows its age in parts. The use of passports to move between EU countries and worries over national security, pirate radio ships located outside the 3 mile zone, and some dialogue that could only reflect the heady socialism beliefs of the late 1960s all date the book.However the basic story line is still classic Deighton, with the inevitable nameless lead UK agent seen from prior novels, a cast of international characters who fit easily alongside the many acidic lines of dialogue and cynical observations plus a plot of many twists and turns that keeps you guessing all the way.Not his best but still a pleasure to re-read.

Plot: a British agent is keeping tabs on a blackmailing operation in a Paris clinic - involving sex perversions and torture. Files and films document all this, and foreign governments are interested, as powerful people have been filmed there. Possibly the French government is interested too - or are they involved in running the clinic? Loyalties shift and interact, betrayals on both personal and professional level seem imminent. The Americans are leaking secrets to the Chinese; deals are struck, but as all involved runn at several levels of interest, solutions seem difficult...The title comes from Oliver Wilde, who said "dying in Paris is a terribly expensive business for a foreigner." He should know: he died there.My opinion: possibly this 1967 novel is the fifth in the series of the un-named WOOC (P) agent of Ipcress File to Billion Dollar Brain - but I think not. This is greyer, more grim, and with fewer insights into international espionage facts. It is more like Deighton's later books, the Bernard Samson ones and the three 'Spy' titles.But it is vintage Deighton, cynical, very observant, atmospheric. Not as good as the first four, I reckon; but there are scenes in this book, very filmic ones, that remain with you for a long time. And the interaction between the various personages is, again, both realistic and emotional; and very sharply observed. 'The poet of the spy story'? Maybe - but a very good writer, anyway.

Husband loved it