Spies and such

When I'm not playing solitaire,

I take a book down from the shelf...

What I'm reading now is The Spy by James Fenimore Cooper. The introduction by the author gives a fascinating insight into aspects of the Revolutionary War that I had never thought much about. Unlike Nathan Hale, Cooper's hero (the real spy, told about in the introduction) is not obliged to give his one life for his country; he survives the war, and refuses to accept a generous reward for his service as a spy.

I love people who turn down rewards. In A Distant Trumpet (one of Mable's and my favorite books), the hero turns down the Congressional Medal because a government representative had told him a lie, and the gov. refused to do what it had originally promised.

I like spy stories, and in my opinion the best ones were written by John LeCarre (Call for the Dead and The Spy Who Came In From the Cold), and Eric Ambler (A Coffin for Demetrios, Cause for Alarm, and Journey Into Fear). Ambler was a better writer, but I love George Smiley and Alec Leamas (by LeCarre), while I don't remember much about Ambler's stories and heroes.