Funeral in Berlin Funeral in Berlin Funeral in Berlin is a 1964 spy novel by Len Deighton set between Saturday October 5th and Sunday November 10th 1963. It was the third of four novels about an unnamed British agent. It was preceded by "The IPCRESS File" (1962) and "Horse Under Water" (1963), and followed by "Billion-Dollar Brain" (1966). The protagonist, who is unnamed, travels to Berlin to arrange the defection of a Soviet scientist named Semitsa, this being brokered by Johnny Vulkan of the Berlin intelligence community. Despite the protagonist's initial scepticism, the deal seems to have the support of Russian security-chief Colonel
The IPCRESS File or 1923. WOOC(P) is a small department and the nameless hero has a great deal of autonomy. He is also quite paranoid, keeping an "escape package" containing money, a false passport and other documents circulating in the mail. Once a week he picks up the package from an accommodation address, a seedy London shop, and re-mails it to that address in a fresh envelope. He is also a gourmet who enjoys good food. Cooking features frequently in both the film and the novel; Deighton himself was an accomplished cook. In common with several of his other early novels, the chapter