The Ipcress File

A classic cold war thriller. Deighton captures the sometime mundanity of life as a spy and as a result his creation is much more believable than Fleming's Uber-spy James Bond. Deighton's nameless hero (christened Harry Palmer in the film) is caught in a web of intrigue where you are not sure who is on which side or who's watching who. The plot is sometimes a bit too convoluted for its own good, but Deighton's writing is always crisp and to the point and as a result you are carried along to the last page. Well worth reading.