Mister 8

Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.

The China Syndrome

If’n you’re reading along at home, we’ll plan to unleash discussion of The IPCRESS File / spoiler alerts for Monday. So, if you can, prepare yourself!

In the meantime, over at the Len Deighton Yahoo! Group, Jeremy Duns points out that one of Deighton’s most obvious lasting influences on the spy thriller genre can be seen in the titles of books by other authors in the decades that followed The IPCRESS File:

…The  title of The IPCRESS File, perhaps through Forsyth and others, created a new sort of formula for titles that was popularised by Robert Ludlum: The Holcroft Covenant, The Chancellor Manuscipt, The Bourne Identity. They all sound like Deighton novels not written by him – even though they’re nothing like him, of course.

Looking around in a used bookstore today, I was struck by how widespread this naming convention has gone. Nearly every book on the thriller shelf has a The [Proper Name] [Noun] pattern. Then it also occurred to me that a few of my favorite bands, because they follow the same pattern, have always struck me as having names that would fit thriller novels.

So I thought I’d put my readers to the test. Can you figure out which is the thriller novel title, and which is the band name? Let’s find out!