Horse Under Water

Secret File #2

by Len Deighton

The Ipcress File was a debut sensation. Here; in the second Secret File, Horse Under Water; skin diving, drug trafficking and blackmail all feature in a curious story in which a dead and long-defeated Hitler-Germany reaches out to Portugal, London and Marrakech, and to all the neo-Nazis of today's Europe.

Genres: Fiction, Espionage, Thriller, Mystery, Spy Thriller, Audiobook, Ebooks

255 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Deighton was born in Marylebone, London, in 1929. His father was a chauffeur and mechanic, and his mother was a part-time cook. After leaving school, Deighton worked as a railway clerk before performing his National Service, which he spent as a photographer for the Royal Air Force's Special Investigation Branch. After discharge from the RAF, he studied at St Martin's School of Art in London in 1949, and in 1952 won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1955.

Deighton worked as an airline steward with BOAC. Before he began his writing career he worked as an illustrator in New York and, in 1960, as an art director in a London advertising agency. He is credited with creating the first British cover for Jack Kerouac's On the Road. He has since used his drawing skills to illustrate a number of his own military history books.

Following the success of his first novels, Deighton became The Observer's cookery writer and produced illustrated cookbooks. In September 1967 he wrote an article in the Sunday Times Magazine about Operation Snowdrop - an SAS attack on Benghazi during World War II. The following year David Stirling would be awarded substantial damages in libel from the article.

He also wrote travel guides and became travel editor of Playboy, before becoming a film producer. After producing a film adaption of his 1968 novel Only When I Larf, Deighton and photographer Brian Duffy bought the film rights to Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop's stage musical Oh, What a Lovely War! He had his name removed from the credits of the film, however, which was a move that he later described as "stupid and infantile." That was his last involvement with the cinema.

Deighton left England in 1969. He briefly resided in Blackrock, County Louth in Ireland. He has not returned to England apart from some personal visits and very few media appearances, his last one since 1985 being a 2006 interview which formed part of a "Len Deighton Night" on BBC Four. He and his wife Ysabele divide their time between homes in Portugal and Guernsey.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a writer of spy novels, Len Deighton is high on the scale of authenticity, but low on the scale of writerly skills. Probably the best in the field is John Le Carré, with Ian Fleming somewhere south of him.

The unnamed narrator of Horse Under Water is sent to Portugal to supervise divers in bringing some some highly interesting contents of a sunken U-Boat. As is typical in what I have read of Deighton's, everyone he works with is suspect in various ways, either as a spy for the enemy, or as a law enforcement officer from abroad, or as a criminal, or as any combination of the above. That he manages to survive this situation is surprising, though it is frequently difficult to follow exactly how it happens.

Just to shed some more darkness on the subject, Deighton includes several appendices giving details that show his (1) knowledge of spycraft or (2) his contempt of the reader's intellect.

No matter, I still rather like him. Is it because I'm a masochist?

[Sam Reaves · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's easy to forget how good a writer the nearly nonagenarian Len Deighton is; he has been amazingly prolific in various genres, churning out wildly disparate works with apparent ease, and the prose never seems to suffer. This was Deighton's second novel, published in 1963, and it's full of sharp one-liners and little virtuoso touches: "The water was cool and moonlight trickled across it like cream spilt on a black velvet dress... Cats sat around with their hands in their pockets and stared insolently back into the headlight beams."
The plot involves a sunken Nazi sub lying off the south coast of Portugal and various things that may or may not be interred inside. British intelligence sends the supremely cool and jaded Harry Palmer on a Royal Navy diving course just so he can participate in the effort to retrieve them. Rivals are on the scene, including a sinister Portuguese aristocrat and an expat American jazz critic with mysterious sources of wealth. Allies include a former Italian navy diver and the obligatory enticing female ("She was cleaning fish in the kitchen. She wore a microscopic white bikini.")
It's a bit busy, with multiple plot strands and minor characters to keep track of; you get the impression Deighton had amassed a lot of interesting tidbits in his research and just had to cram it all in. Things jump back and forth from gloomy London to the sunny south of Portugal and sometimes it seems Deighton was not quite sure what kind of book he was writing. But then real-life intelligence work is probably similarly disjointed and chaotic. It's all pretty entertaining.

[Nigeyb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horse under Water (1963) by Len Deighton is the second in the un-named spy series (aka Harry Palmer)

Our anonymous secret agent from The Ipcress File is now working with his W.O.O.C.(P). boss Dawlish.

When Len Deighton's first books arrived in the early 1960s they were lauded for their realistic portrait of the world of espionage, and were a refreshing change from the glamourous and unrealistic fantasy world of James Bond. Both The Ipcress File and Horse Under Water certainly feel very credible and real. Interestingly, Horse Under Water contains a bit more adventure and action, and less of the day to day bureaucracy which featured in The Ipcress File. This time our sardonic working-class hero arrives at the shores of Salazar's Portugal, where he encounters a mixture of hard drugs, money and neo-Nazis.

Once again the plot is rather confusing but my advice is to just go with it as there's so much to enjoy in the set pieces and the dialogue, and it all makes a sort of sense by the end.

I look forward to reading more by Len Deighton

4/5


Horse under Water (1963) by Len Deighton

4/5

[Checkman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boy did this one take awhile to get through. I just couldn't get into it. One of Deighton's early works and it shows. He was far too focused on being clever in his writing and it was distracting. I understand that the nature of the story entails not having everything laid out and explained. At the end the narrator even states that, but this one just didn't flow. It lagged and I found myself having to work to maintain my interest. I kept at it mainly because I had started it and I hate to put a book away unfinished.

I don't want you to think this book was terrible. It wasn't. It just wasn't all that great. There is one thing I wish to commend Mr. Deighton on. He obviously did his research and that's why I am giving it three stars. However outstanding research isn't enough. I won't be keeping this one.

Hopefully Spy Story will be better. Considering that it was published ten years later (giving him time to become more polished) I have high hopes it will be.

[Gram · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave up on this one a third of the way through. Don't know if it's meant to be a mystery, a spy thriller or what. Several early chapters were devoted to the main character gaining a diving certificate from the Royal Navy before he set off for Portugal to recover items from a sunken World War 2 German submarine. Then it seemed to turn into a travel guide to Portugal and I found myself skipping pages and gave up. I'm a fan of Len Deighton's work but this one was not for me.

[Alan (on December semi-hiatus) Teder · Rating 3 out of 5]

The WOOC(P) Files #2
Review of the Penguin Modern Classics paperback edition (April, 2021) of the original Jonathan Cape hardcover (1963)

Dawlish always tended to placate other departments when they asked us to do something difficult or stupid. I saw each job in terms of the people who would have to do the dirty work. That's the way I saw this job, but Dawlish was my master. - the nameless protagonist about his boss in Chapter 2 of Horse Under Water

'You didn't understand your role, my boy,' he said in his smug voice, 'we didn't want you to discover anything. Somehow we knew that you would make them do something indiscreet.' - Dawlish to the unnamed protagonist in Chapter 58 of Horse Under Water

Michael Caine as Harry Palmer on one of the paperback editions of Horse Under Water, image sourced from http://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.co.... Note: The book did not have a movie adaptation.

Horse Under Water is the 2nd of my re-reads after having recently learned of the Penguin Modern Classics republication of all of Len Deighton's novels which is being planned over the course of 2021 in an online article Why Len Deighton's spy stories are set to thrill a new generation (Guardian/Observer May 2, 2021).

This second outing was just about as confusing as The IPCRESS File. The nameless agent (renamed Harry Palmer in the Michael Caine movies) of the mysterious WOOC(P) secret service is at first sent out to retrieve counterfeit currency from a sunken German U-Boat off the coast of Portugal. A rag-tag group of hangers-on gradually join the proceedings, almost all of them are not whom they say they are. The mission turns into a hunt for heroin instead (thus the use of the slang word 'Horse' in the title) which also is not the real mission. Eventually everyone reveals their true motives and the real purpose of the mission becomes clear almost at the very end of the book. The protagonist is mostly as confused as we are, but finally sees the goal. Oh, and there was an ice-melting machine somewhere in there as well to add another red herring to the mix.

I'm still enjoying revisiting these books from my early espionage fiction reading days, but it is more for the banter in the dialogue than the confusion of the plots. I am already on to the 3rd book Funeral in Berlin which at least seems to stick to the main plot throughout, with less diversions.

Trivia and Link
I do rather like how the cover designs of all of these 2021 Penguin Modern Classics editions incorporate the painted crossing-walk stripes that were used in an early Horse Under Water edition pictured above.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly my favourite of the unnamed agent series. As in many many of Deightons books there often small humorous touches. Especially relevant to me is part of the action takes place near me.
Also nice to see is the cover shown is the original paperback

[Antonio Fanelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Più chiaro di ipcres, ma pur sempre caotico e, forse perché letto in inglese, mi è sfuggito il senso dell' intera operazione. Pazienza.

[Feliks · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Horse Under Water' is a lot of fun. The traditional laconic, wry, self-deprecating, offbeat, irreverent, swank, Deighton style which he coined with the earlier 'Ipcress File'. Characters spouting quips left and right. The pacing is languid for 3/4ths of the story and then picks up impetus at the end, while remaining very clipped and staccato, making you eager to thumb ahead.

Exotic setting (coast of Portugal); and Deighton's trademark 'elements of the absurd'. Deighton nimbly keeps all the clues suspended before laying them down in their final arrangement. Lots of WWII-related content for history fans.

What is unique about the book is that although fiction, Deighton drew much from his knowledge of military history --and to let you share in that pleasure--he provides a running patter of footnotes and an appendix at the end. Readers of Rebecca West will see where he got some of his ideas from.

Also inventive is the book's title and chapter titles: which all stem from a Times crossword the protagonist is filling out as he matriculates through the plot. The reader is invited to solve it if he can.

[Kimmo Sinivuori · Rating 4 out of 5]

The anonymous spy in Deighton's first four novels is a Marlowe type moral hero. He is anti-establishment and has symphaty for those who have the misfortune of understanding the otherside's points. Unlike Marlowe, Deighton's spy is a bureaucrat. He is still fighting for the Queen and Country which turns him into an even more of a cynical character than Marlowe. This is not a bad thing as Deighton has a keen eye on bureaucratic maneuvers and inter agency rivalry. Deighton's style is influenced by Chandler but he is not as funny as the great master. On the other hand, Deighton is not deadly serious writer like John le Carre which makes his books much more enjoyable read to the latter's. Nor is Deighton's hero as swinging as portrayed in the great mid-sixties movies starring Michael Caine named as Harry Palmer. What we have in the end is a great cold war spy adventure featuring as cool a bureaucrat as one can get.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked up this book in a hotel foyer when I was desperate for something to read. Deighton was not an author I'd normally pick up, but it was a pleasant surprise. Deighton peppers his books with literary gems such as: "I drove on past Victorian terraces behind which un-painted bed-sitters crouched, pretending to be one grand imperial household instead of a molecular structure of colonial loneliness" or "as limp as a Dali watch". Kept me reading apace to the end (another surprise). The footnotes are a bonus; they are fascinating.

[Graeme Dunlop · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great follow-up to The Ipcress File. The same nameless protagonist is embroiled in a search for something in a Nazi U-Boat sunk beneath the waves of Portugal. The story involves wartime secrets, drugs, questionable personalities and -- almost inevitably -- violence and death.

The narrative is a bit more coherent and steady than The Ipcress File but you still have to pay attention. Deighton also seems to be stretching his newly-found writing muscles; the analogies come thick and fast and are, for the most part, pretty spot on.

Another enjoyable outing with he who would be named Harry Palmer in the Michael Caine movies.

[William Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

perhaps my favourite of his early works.....always wondered why it was never made into a movie.

[John Whitaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The master spy author keeps you puzzled and entertained.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's OK. At least coherent unlike the IPCRESS file ...

[Tiina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely well written and perfectly paced. A real vintage gem!

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Len Deighton is a better spy novelist than Le Carré, I think. At least I enjoy his wit and sense of smoothness more than the drab and dour surroundings Le Carré seems fixed on. Both writers were said to have revolutionized the genre, with working class heroes of dubious backgrounds and a willingness towards expediency. Partly that is true. But both owe most of what they are trying to achieve to the paths pioneered by Conrad much earlier.

This second of Deighton's novels differs structurally from the first, The IPCRESS File, and perhaps psychologically from his third, Funeral in Berlin. As these are the only three I have read so far means I cannot quite get a handle on how Deighton will develop eventually. Horse Under Water hasn't got quite the flair that IPCRESS File does when touching on the color and atmosphere of the cultural context of the 1950s and early 1960s. And it doesn't take us into the multi-perspective point of view that Funeral in Berlin does. What Horse Under Water does achieve is a much tighter storyline than the other two. It's more conventional in that regard, albeit all the more satisfying in some ways because of it.

What this means is you can enjoy these three early works on different levels taking differing approaches. The atmospheric quality Deighton uses to describe Portugal of the early 1960s captures a place now long disappeared into modernity. There is something of the nineteenth century or even earlier in his descriptions. Despite the fact that Salazar was a modern authoritarian--not quite a totalitarian--the Portugal described on these pages in all its remoteness and languid way of life seems something more a part of far earlier times. Into the midst of all this, what a rupture it is to find Deighton introducing modern espionage, escaped Nazis, and a European-wide conspiracy to restore Fascism to power throughout the continent.

Quite good. More traditional than the other early works but equally challenging in its mystery.

[Amrit J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading a Len Deighton is somewhere between reading an Ian Flemind and a Le Carre. The plots are as outlandish as Fleming's and the attempt to make it sound somber like Le Carre.

The plot itself was all over the place. The writer uses the Protagonist to establish that when he says ‘It’s so confusing, isn’t it?’ Charly said.
‘Confusing,’ I replied. ‘Of course it’s confusing. You involve yourself in industrial espionage and then you complain about it being confusing.’

As a result we end up with a book which has a few different threads being investigated. Len Deighton was a student of Art and an illustrator and he brings these techniques to his writing too. He very cleverly creates this foreground - our protagonist hearing noises, the taste of coffee, the way a ciggerette is rolled, side conversations - and in between all that, there are plot elements erractically mentioned. This can on one hand display the fact that our spy, our protagonist is an "always active" brain which takes in everything around him, but on the other hand, can reduce the reader's patience to actually put up with the book as unlike Le Carre, the plot really is paper thin and barely moving.

Another thing I have noticed about Len Deighton's artistic side is the way he describes places.
I watched the waves moving down on to the shore. Each shadow darkened until one, losing its balance, toppled forward.
OR
We walked through the fish market. The flat concrete benches were ashine with bream and gilthead, pilchards, sardines and mackerel. Outside the sun reflected off the sea with a million flashing pinpoints of light, as though every bird was sitting there on the ocean top flashing angry white wings.

My primary reason for sticking with the book was the fact that despite all criticism Len Deighton is not a bad writer. But then I cannot be a fan of the plot where a lot of things happened, for apparently no reason and to no end.

I know I have rated it two stars but it can easily be three or four depending on personal tastes.

[John Hardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks again Bookfest January 2023. I've read this before but can't find my copy, so slightly annoyed to pay $2.50 for a falling - apart copy, but it's for charity. I am a big fan of Len Deighton, and also of Michael Caine, who starred in five movies as the unnamed agent (although called Harry Palmer in the movies). This 1963 publication was not filmed, however. I was in my teens, and James Bond had burst onto the scene (I read all those as well - I don't think Mum knew about the s - e - x in my "innocent" library books). Deighton's agent and the "firm" he worked for had a more realistic feel. If anyone wants to see one of the films, I recommend the very first one, called "The Ipcress File".
Now I am much older, and perhaps a little jaded. I can enjoy the book, but now notice how very "busy" it is. Seemingly all the good guys have encyclopaedic knowledge of pretty much any topic. What I once saw as an acceptable form of insolence in the agent now seems false. He likes to look after number one, reasonable enough, but he doesn't always see the big picture. He's not as smart as he thinks he is!
You can't skim this or you risk missing an important point. Or you might miss some of the marvellous similes, ("cats sat around with their hands in their pockets and stared insolently back into the headlight beams"), or the moments of humour or snappy one-liners. Or maybe the plot has just gone in another direction, LOL. It could have been edited more tightly to reduce the length about 10% to around 200 pages paperback.
Despite all this I rate it 3.9 - reading is personal, nostalgia makes the world go around, and I still have my memories of my teenage years in the sixties. I always liked my heroes to be successful and an anti-authoritarian attitude goes down a treat for me.
Read it if you get a chance. Don't bother watching the movie.

[Trevor Seigler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last year I revisited the Spy with No Name (in the movies, Harry Palmer) in the first of his adventures, "The Ipcress File." I'd read it ages ago, when I was in high school and afflicted with an Anglophilia that has never really left me (though I'm much more knowledgeable about the faults of the British Empire than I was then). So naturally I decided it would be a good time to re-read the second adventure of the anonymous spy. And I found it just as delightful as "Ipcress," perhaps even more so.

"Horse Under Water" is Len Deighton's second novel, and it's chock-full of intrigue surrounding a sunken Nazi submarine off the coast of Portugal. People would kill to unlock its secrets, and many do die over the course of the book. Our nameless hero goes into action with tongue planted firmly in cheek, even when he uncovers the truth about what lies under the waves and why everyone is so damn trigger-happy about it. I feel like to say more would spoil the fun of the book (and it really is fun, a bit of hard-boiled fun with some sardonic asides), so let me just say that I definitely understood this one more than I did when I read it in high school.

I haven't read the other books that feature Harry Palmer/The Spy with No Name, so from here on out they would indeed be new to me. And as I've found myself more drawn to spy fiction and crime novels of late, I'm guessing that I'll continue along with the series in due time. "Horse Under Water" hits all the beats and notes of a spy novel that's much smarter than your average fare, and more interesting than a lot of more "serious" fiction.

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The still unnamed Harry Palmer and a submarine full of heroin. Not bad.

[Louise Smethurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can you beat a Len Deighton?

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fatty grilled kidneys and warm bread in Marrakech's souk, jelly filled doughnuts hot from the fryer, warm almond cookies dipped in hot mint tea ... mmmmmmm. So what if Deighton's humor is sometimes puerile, his attitudes occasionally smutty, and his attempts at clever Chandlerisms regrettable ("He was a cool as a Camembert."!?). He's still the only spy writer who's successfully yoked heart-thumping intrigue with broiled spider crab followed by cream of shrimp soup. Read the Horse under Water for its underwater adventure, read it for its dizzying plot, but savor it for its culinary prose. It's a perfect beach read, but don't attempt it until your larder is well stocked. Now I can't wait to find a copy of Deighton's Action Cookbook and finally get a decent recipe for a loaf of kung fu.

[Jeremy Herbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

It takes a while to read a Len Deighton novel because every other sentence has an image or aside or witty retort that other writers would kill to come up with once a chapter. His famously unnamed narrator may not see as much conventional action as his contemporaries, but he has more than enough bureaucratic disdain to keep it interesting. Deighton's world of espionage is reheated alphabet soup. New acronyms for old enemies and too many letters to remember when filing the forms for help from so-called friends. The plot - the retrieval of counterfeit cash from a sunken U-boat to covertly fund a revolution - isn't as addictive as Deighton's best, but it may be his purest expression of cog-in-the-machine espionage. In the beginning, all our hero knows is his orders. In the end, he's not even sure about those anymore. But he's just so corrosively charming you don't mind the company.

[Stewart Sternberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is his second novel, and you can feel him developing his skills. I know the appeal of the first book, The Ipcress File, was its depiction of British intelligence as a bureaucracy, seizing on a more realistic approach to espionage than someone like Fleming. However the writing is sometimes hard to follow, sometimes a bit too plodding, and the moments where action rules fall flat.

This second book is better at character development, and slightly better at developing tension and holding a reader's interest, but still falls short. That being said I look forward to the next novel and hope he continued his growth as a writer

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tend to think of this novel, the second of Deighton’s Secret File novels, as the missing one since it was never made into a film like Ipcress File etc.. And again it’s worth noting that the anonymous protagonist of this story is not the same as the Harry Palmer of the films. Similar but different.
Horse Under Water finds our protagonist sent by his department WOOC(P) to negotiate with Portuguese anti Salazar activists and then to assist with financing their activities by retrieving currency and other items from a sunken WW2 U-boat off the coast of the Algarve. Many plot strands intertwine including Ex Nazis, sinister Nazi & neo sympathisers and heroin smuggling.
Just go with the flow.

[Gerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm usually very hard on my stars. And this is just a spy thriller. But it's such a good one. Probably one of the best thrillers of the 1960s.

Skipped by the film makers after the Ipcress File (I can kind of see why) it's actually a much better book than that, characterisation well established, but a much better narrative.

The plot is clever and (for it's type) believable. The characters feel real. There's a little sexism typical of it's time but there are also smart and funny women who play key roles.

And like LeCarre at his best, it's actually all about class. The villains are all Fascists or Tories.

I loved it

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This sequel to The Ipcress File is the usual challenging-but-rewarding Deighton read, impossible not to hear Michael Caine’s voice as the nameless (Harry Palmer) protagonist’s voice and all the more fun for that. A much more linear and straightforward plot than its predecessor, which was also welcome. Looking forward to reading Funeral in Berlin, the next in sequence in the near future.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this one sometime in the seventies or eighties and other than the cover art, I can't remember much about it at all. What I do remember is that Len Deighton wrote a couple of cookery books that I quite liked and found much more useful than this book.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read back in the 70s