Mexico Set

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Mexico Set is a 1984 spy novel by Len Deighton.

[edit] Plot summary

The trouble begins in Mexico, where Samson is on the trail of his Soviet opposite number: Erich Stinnes, a KGB major whom London Central wishes to recruit, to enroll, to coax over to the West...

The task of laying the delicate and elaborate groundwork for Stinnes' defection propels Samson from Mexico to London, to Paris, Berlin, and the East-West border. What happens along the way—a temporary abduction, an unnecessary murder, an inconvenient suicide—happens so fast that Samson hardly seems able to keep London Central informed of developments. Or is it that Samson wants to keep his colleagues in the dark? Certainly London Central's entire senior staff—from Samson's immediate supervisors, locked in their endless internecine office warfare, to the dotty Director-General himself—would have reason to suspect that Samson might be working for the other side. He was, after all, closer than any of the other to the former traitor-in-their-midst...

And Samson himself is losing control—indeed, events seem to be controlling him. As he finds himself in a series of ever more incriminating positions, as one by one the avenues of escape or vindication close before him, the novel winds back toward Mexico.. and toward the astonishing climax - at the scene of the defection Samson has so painstakingly orchestrated—in which the allegiances of all involved are finally and fatefully revealed.

This novel is part of a trilogy, which has a prequel, called Winter. The first novel in the trilogy is Berlin Game; the last is London Match.

Years after its publication, the BBC made a film version of the trilogy, called Game, Set, and Match, starring Ian Holm as Bernard Samson and Mel Martin as Fiona. It was adapted by John Howlett and directed by Ken Grieve and Patrick Lau. It is not easy to find: Netflix doesn't have it, nor do most libraries.

v • d • e Works by Len Deighton "Unnamed hero" novels: The IPCRESS File (1962) · Horse Under Water (1963) · Funeral in Berlin (1964) · Billion-Dollar Brain (1966) · An Expensive Place to Die (1967) · Spy Story (1972) · Yesterday's Spy (1975) · Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy (1976) Bernard Samson novels: Berlin Game (1983) · Mexico Set (1984) · London Match (1985) · Winter (1987) · Spy Hook (1988) · Spy Line (1989) · Spy Sinker (1990) · Faith (1994) · Hope (1995) · Charity (1996) Other novels: Only When I Larf (1968) · Bomber (1970) · Close-Up (1972) · SS-GB (1978) · XPD (1981) · Goodbye, Mickey Mouse (1982) · MAMista (1991) · City of Gold (1992) · Violent Ward, (1993) Short story collections: Declarations of War (1971) · The Verdict of Us (2006) Non-fiction: Où Est le Garlic (1965) · Len Deighton's Action Cookbook (1965) · Len Deighton's London Dossier (1967) · Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain (1977) · Airshipwreck (1978) · Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk (1979) · Battle of Britain (1980) · Blood, Tears and Folly: An Objective Look at World War II (1993)