Agent Palmer

Finding something relevant in a book 20 years after I was supposed to read it seems par for the course.

Normally it is possible to argue with an inside dust jacket quote, but in this case, it’s improbable. “Spy Sinker is the crescendo climax of the six previous bestselling novels by Len Deighton–and it ties them all together.” Spy Sinker is the culmination of the six previous novels, but it’s so much more than that. In a way, Berlin Game, Mexico Set, London Match, Winter, Spy Hook, and Spy Line are the dots plotted on a graph in the Bernard…

Michael Crichton’s The Lost World is a melding of espionage, extinction, and evolution. It’s much more of a short story in scope than Jurassic Park is as a novel. But the tension and thriller aspects of the book make for a gripping read.

Winter: A Novel of a Berlin Family by Len Deighton is a familial masterpiece. Starting with Harald Winter and focusing on his two sons, Peter and Paul Winter, this novel follows the family’s journey as their spouses and friends are all intertwined in chaotic and random events as history unfolds with World War I and World War II.

It didn’t take too long to become reacquainted with Parzival, Art3mis, Aech, Shoto, and the OASIS in Ready Player Two. Once you get going, it’s not easy to stop, similar to an addiction, which is part of the discussion and joy of Ready Player Two, Ernest Cline’s much-anticipated sequel to the best-seller Ready Player One.