Spy Sinker (Hook, Line & Sinker)

From Publishers Weekly The final volume in Deighton's hook, line and sinker espionage trilogy will likely disappoint even his staunchest fans with its passionless, unsuspenseful scenario for explaining the political liberation of Eastern Europe at the end of the '80s. Bernard Sampson, protagonist of the earlier books, here steps backstage as his wife, Fiona, defects to East Germany after being groomed as a double agent. In place, Fiona is set to implement a plan facilitating the westward defection of East German professionals, leaving a gap in the economic structure which is expected to defeat the Communist regime. Fiona's abandonment of her husband and two young children occurs with little drama or conflict, and is a move no more convincing than the doubts Deighton later visits upon her. The plan conceived by Bret Rensselaer, deputy controller of European economics for Britain's SIS, to dismantle the Wall is intriguing and plausible, but its fictional execution is without force. At his best with action scenes, Deighton gives us too few; only those that begin and end his tale ring with excitement and suspense. 250,000 first printing; $250,000 ad/promo. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review 'All done with the chilling competence we expect from Mr Deighton! No padding, no slowing of pace, and writing is crisp and brutal' Daily Telegraph 'Dazzling ingenuity and cleverness' Independent 'A remarkable feat' Sunday Express Why did Bernard Samson's wife Fiona disappear into East Berlin, leaving him with two young children and a wrecked career as a spy? This, at last, is Fiona's story. We see how she was recruited by the KGB as a young Oxford student. We also see her rise through the hierarchy of the British intelligence system until she is their super spy for East Germany, her mission the dangerous dealings that will help bring down the Berlin Wall in 1989. Beautiful, brilliant Fiona is thus caught not only in the double world of two espionage systems but also in the growing realization that it is only through treachery and deceit of the ones she loves most that Fiona can serve her country The long-awaited reissue of the final part of the classic spy trilogy, HOOK, LINE and SINKER, when the Berlin Wall divided not just a city but a world.Bernard Samson is surrounded by puzzles and none more complex than Fiona, his wife and the mother of his children. But as a mystery, she is by no means alone. Can a man love two women at the same time? Can a man serve two masters?Tessa Kosinski, Bernard's socialite sister-in-law, is not the 'other woman'. She is as faithful to Bernard and Fiona as she is unfaithful to her doting husband. But she is vulnerable, and slowly she is drawn from the bright lights of London to the murkiest and bizarre corners of Berlin.