The Ipcress File
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season223 pages, about 4 hours: two-thirds the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbThe unnamed narrator is transferred from Military Intelligence to a small unit investigating a series of missing scientists.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 11 reviews from critics and book blogs, 5 credit the plot and 3 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesOne critic likens its structure to Heart of Darkness, another its break from Bond to The Spy Who Came In from the Cold.
The case for it
on the narrator
“a spy’s spy, the anti-James Bond”
a book blog on his tradecraft
“attention to detail and the application of tradecraft could be life savers on a mission”
a book blog on 1960s London
“funny, stylish, poised tiptoe on the brink of ‘Swinging London’”
a book blog on the endnotes
“give this book a sense of complexity and truth greater than any other spy thrillers”
nagaisayonara · Crime Fiction Lover, 2016
The case against
on the mystery
“even the shape of the mystery is difficult to discern”
a book blog on the jokes
“none of the gags really work 61 years on”
a book blog on the sexism
“the taken-for-granted, casual but all-pervasive sexism”
a book blog on the narration
“This is a risky technique, and so Len Deighton’s novels are not for everyone”
a book blog
