SPY STORY

After some misconceived side trips, Deighton is back at the top of the form he handles best and better than almost anyone else around; so is his Funeral in Berlin spy with a new name, Pat Armstrong, and a new job at the Studies Centre where they have very complicated computers and simple edicts like ""All time is game time."" The war game in progress has everything to do with Russian submarine activity along the Northern route and something more specific with a Red Admiral who needs a kidney transplant (none available in the USSR)--defecting seems better than dying. But before you reach this point, there will have been unsettling incidents closer to the Studies Centre in London: Armstrong will have returned to his old digs to find everything the same, except that his photographs have been retouched; he will be worked on by two goons under the Soviet Colonel from the Embassy; he will also be in between the sputtering bickering between the two men on his team (a not so wee Scot, 200 pounds of flab, and an American who hates all the ""Brits""). These are firm characterizations along with the ubiquitous Dawlish who keeps turning up at the right time and there's an attractive romance as well. Unlike Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Deighton's spy has no time to reflect and he's involved in a stow with lots of equipment from the literally chilling (under the polar pack) scenery and the dialogue with a fast undercut. Imperative entertainment and since all time is game time, get going.