Christmas wishes to all the website readers ....

Hours of endless waiting ahead on a cold Christmas night ....

"'Cheer up, Werner. It will soon be Christmas,' I said.
I shook the bottle, dividing the last drips of whisky between the two white plastic cups that were balanced on the car radio. I pushed the empty bottle under the seat. The smell of the whisky was strong. I must have spilled some on the heater or on the warm leather that encased the radio. I thought Werner would decline it. He wasn't a drinker and he'd had far too much already, but Berlin winter nights are cold and Werner swallowed his whisky in one gulp and coughed. Then he crushed the cup in his big muscular hands and sorted through the bent and broken pieces so that he could fit them all into the ashtray. Werner's wife Zena was obsessionally tidy and this was her car."

Whether you're on a stake-out or, more likely, drinking (or not!) at home with your kith and kin, the Deighton Dossier wishes its readers and contributors good wishes for this Yuletide and good hope for a book-filled, interesting 2017.

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