Horse Under Water Horse Under Water Horse Under Water (1963, , ) is the second of four Len Deighton spy novels featuring an unnamed British agent protagonist (named Harry Palmer in the film adaptions). It was preceded by "The IPCRESS File" and followed by "Funeral in Berlin". The novel is set in 1960, mostly in a small fishing village in Portugal, which was then a dictatorship led by António de Oliveira Salazar. It retains the style of "The IPCRESS File" — multiple plots twists, Gauloises cigarettes, grimy, and soot-stained British winter. In common with several of Deighton's other early novels, the chapter headings
The IPCRESS File Minister of Defence, thus making the novel itself the 'IPCRESS File' of the title. The events begin soon after his transfer from military intelligence to WOOC(P), a small civilian intelligence agency reporting directly to the British Cabinet, where he works under the command of a man named Dalby. An intelligence broker code-named "Jay" is suspected to be behind a series of kidnappings of highly placed and influential British VIPs with the intention of selling them to the Soviets, and the protagonist is assigned to meet with Jay to secure the release of "Raven", a high-ranking scientist and his latest target.