An Expensive Place to Die

An Expensive Place to Die
Len Deighton

An unnamed spy - perhaps the same reluctant hero of The Ipcress File - is sent to Paris to deliver a file of nuclear secrets to a French doctor, but soon finds himself sucked into a twilight world of sex, blackmail and hidden motive, where friend and enemy become indistinguishable.A ‘clinic’ on Paris’s Avenue Foch designed to cater lavishly for multiple perversions, staffed by a group of sexually and intellectually high-powered girls and equipped with devices ranging from an Iron Maiden to psychedelic truth-drugs – that’s the set-up operated by the enigmatic Monsieur Datt.Naturally, it has a hidden purpose: to compile dossiers of tape and film on influential political clients from East and West. Into this twilight world of decadence and hidden motives come the agents of four world powers.Are they after Datt’s pornographic blackmail dossiers? Or is their purpose altogether more deadly than a trip to the blue movies…?This new reissue includes a foreword from the cover designer, Oscar-winning filmmaker Arnold Schwartzman, and a brand new introduction by Len Deighton, which offers a fascinating insight into the writing of the story.

LEN DEIGHTON

An Expensive Place to Die

Copyright

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by

Jonathan Cape Ltd in 1967

Copyright © Len Deighton 1967

Introduction copyright © Pluriform Publishing Company BV 2012

Cover designer’s note © Arnold Schwartzman 2012

The poem ‘May’ quoted here (#ulink_15b66a7b-ede0-5c08-a376-02e8804c0699) is from Twentieth Century Chinese Poetry,translated by Kai-yu Hsu (copyright © Kai-yu Hsu 1963) and reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Co. Inc., New York

Len Deighton asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780007448349

Ebook Edition © June 2012 ISBN: 9780007458387

Version: 2017-05-23

Epigraph

Do not disturb the President of the Republic

except in the case of world war.

Instructions for night duty officers

at the Élysée Palace

You should never beat a woman,

not even with a flower.

The Prophet Mohammed

Dying in Paris is a terribly expensive

business for a foreigner.

Oscar Wilde

Table of Contents

Cover (#u460716bd-68f6-5d74-b18b-53456d95c31b)

Title Page (#u2a381c92-d6de-5056-8046-bfb2f6ecfff8)

Copyright (#u2cd25c0e-e6dc-5048-a7ab-e2400e7f3d2d)

Epigraph (#u9627368f-0b17-5297-b158-149263a57ee5)

Introduction (#u464ff3fa-1e2a-5e4b-8692-eab9653dfd00)

Chapter 1 (#u57a69dc9-e259-5769-8d17-bbbfd38ac2bd)

Chapter 2 (#u5256ddf3-0330-50ba-a7cb-c9976afdb7fc)

Chapter 3 (#u211b0f61-7d29-5c90-b760-8da239549e72)

Chapter 4 (#uf418aabe-ce8f-5a34-858f-30a4a222aeef)

Chapter 5 (#uf69668b3-8a70-583b-8f4c-c7e79af32e23)

Chapter 6 (#u81f844a4-8e90-5b73-8c28-70be45840536)

Chapter 7 (#u1e7b8be2-84a8-56a7-ae7b-e3e97dd40dc9)

Chapter 8 (#u81bb8b40-a492-564e-bb72-12626f180f93)

Chapter 9 (#u4a9c82e9-f4e7-5ea5-9208-3f1f7d0e0919)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)