Horse Under Water

Author: Len Deighton

First Published: 1963
File size/Pages: 1611KB / 276pp

Ebook Publisher: HarperCollins
Ebook Date: Oct 2009

It's very remiss of me to have never read a book by Len Deighton until recently. He rates in the top ranks of thriller and spy fiction, known all over the world and a first-class international bestselling author since his first novel, The Ipcress File was published in 1962. I'll admit I was a little apprehensive about reading a Deighton novel. I had the same kind of feeling that I had experienced before reading my first John le Carre, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Top echelon spy fiction can have that effect. People are reluctant to pick them up and give them a go because they have the impression that the books are full of difficult to follow and intricate plotting. I mean these books are populated with incredibly intelligent and devious schemers of the modern world, what hope have us normal guys got in trying to decipher whatever the hell is going on in the story if the brainy characters within them can't even work out what is happening?

Deighton's early stories however, star an unnamed hero, who has been thrust into the espionage game via a grammar school upbringing. Popularised on film by actor Michael Caine in adaptations of The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain, he was christend "Harry Palmer". But in paperback, the hero remains an enigma. It means he is at the centre of everything, narrating the events as they happen to him, much like a good 40's/50's private detective. He's not one of the upper class English private school exports. It makes him that much more accessible and real.

Horse Under Water was the successor to The Ipcress File, but "Secret File No.2" has never been adapted to the screen. The Caine versions were shot out of sequence, and the poor performance of Billion Dollar Brain at the box office resulted in the second book never being made. Perhaps the multiple locations (Portugal, England, Morocco and Gibraltar) and the complex technicalities of possible underwater scenes put this story bottom of the pile in terms of costs to produce. It's a shame really, as it would have made for quite a Bond-like travelogue (which now seems to be the norm).


The plot involves the attempt to retrieve a box from a sunken World War II U-boat off the coast of Portugal. The British government are contacted by Portuguese revolutionaries, and asked to help recover the box which, it is believed, holds a large amount of counterfeit English, American and Swedish currency. The forgeries were clearly the safety net for some high ranking German officer who had planned on using it to finance his escape during the last weeks of the War. The submarine never reached it's destination, and the money remains sealed in a tomb at the bottom of the North Atlantic.

After a slight detour in a training camp to learn the basics for deep sea diving, our unnamed protagonist is sent to Gibraltar, to meet up with Foreign Office representatives and make contact with an ex-Italian Navy frogman, Giorgio Olivettini. He is to assist with the dives and help them locate the mysterious box. Once settled in Portugal, they are also joined by Clive Singleton, British Navy attache, and Charlotte Lucas-Mountford who is a fluent Portuguese speaker and will act as their household help.

But it is soon obvious that other parties are interested in the new people staying in the small coastal town, and they are approached by local businessmen and tourists. As can be expected, not everything is as it seems.

Deighton's writing style in the Secret Files books is wonderful. He uses very short sentences quite often. He is great at very quickly setting the scene or providing a beautiful description of the locations in the story. His characters have acid-tongues, and at times very quick fired conversations are full of double-meaning and one upmanship. The plot itself takes a little while to get going, but the chapters are quite short, and changes in location happen relatively fast. All of this creates a fast-paced book, even when the plot is still taking its time to germinate. It wasn't difficult to follow, but there were times when I didn't have a clue as to where the story was going to take me.

As my first experience of Len Deighton, it was a resounding success. I plan on trying out a few more - possibly not the other "Harry Palmer" books as I'm a bit too familiar with them through their movie versions. But I don't think this will be my one and only Deighton title.

Recommended, and worth giving it a go, even if you think this level of spy fiction is not your cup of tea.