Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87392 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Synopsis
The third volume in the trilogy that began with FAITH and HOPE, in which Bernard Samson wonders how the Cold War will end for him and his family and whether he can continue to out-fox the upper-class desk pilots who have so cleverly dominated his life.

Customer Reviews

Circles Within Circles
Bernard Samson is one of my favorite espionage characters. I was delighted by this excellent completion of the Faith, Hope and Charity trilogy.

The hard part about Deighton's trilogies is that they leave the reader hanging between books, dying for the next one. Charity does not resolve everything, but it certainly takes care of a lot of the dangling questions.

The plot complications invite paranoia. It seems like nothing is ever what it appears to be. The only constant is that Bernard continues to play the role of the unwitting dupe in others' ploys. Since he is a good and thoughtful person, that pulls us away from having sympathy for the spymasters who dream up the plans to go awry so often. It raises the rather nice question of how far the means can and should go to justify the end.

Will we ever have enough of the Cold War and its espionage? Perhaps not. If so, we are fortunate that Len Deighton has written this book.

If you have not read the earlier Bernard Samson novels, I strongly urge you to begin at the beginning with Winter. You'll have two advantages that way: You will appreciate the plot development better, having known of the prior complications; and you won't have to wait for the next book to come out. If you follow this advice, I envy you. You have a lot of fun reading ahead!

Circles Within Circles
Bernard Samson is one of my favorite espionage characters. I was delighted by this excellent completion of the Faith, Hope and Charity trilogy.

The hard part about Deighton's trilogies is that they leave the reader hanging between books, dying for the next one. Charity does not resolve everything, but it certainly takes care of a lot of the dangling questions.

The plot complications invite paranoia. It seems like nothing is ever what it appears to be. The only constant is that Bernard continues to play the role of the unwitting dupe in others' ploys. Since he is a good and thoughtful person, that quality pulls us away from having sympathy for the spymasters who dream up the plans to go awry so often. It raises the rather nice question of how far the means can and should go to justify the end.

Will we ever have enough of the Cold War and its espionage? Perhaps not. If so, we are fortunate that Len Deighton has written this book.

If you have not read the earlier Bernard Samson novels, I strongly urge you to begin at the beginning with Winter. You'll have two advantages that way: You will appreciate the plot development better, having known of the prior complications; and you won't have to wait for the next book to come out. If you follow this advice, I envy you. You have a lot of fun reading ahead!

Masterful
Having started the Sampson trilogy with the book `Winter` I have managed to build a profile of a plethora of characters associated with the series. The detail is stunning and the architecture of the writing sublime. The concluding story twists....yet again!! but this time give the reader a real sense of direction and in depth feeling for the characters. Maybe the story offers more questions than answers and leaves you screaming for more, but Deighton masterfully leaves it to the reader's imagination and any reader with said imagination will realise the subtlety involved and appreciate the ending for what it is, Masterful. This story reflects life in that there are no absolutes, especially not in Bernard's life but Deighton makes you live the story and you wont be disappointed with his spin on Bernard's life.