Le Carre.
John. Agent Running in the Field
John Le
Carre’s latest work is typical for him. It avoids the violence and mad chases
and escapes that stoke traditional spy thrillers. Le Carre’s action is generally more internal than external and his main character, Nat, simply seems to be looking back on his long and
apparently successful career at “The Office” where he has faithfully addressed
the continuing threats of hostility between the post World War II powers.
As the book
opens, Nat has apparently retired from
the service and returned to London where he
has been assigned to a make-work supervisory role for a moribund local
station.
This works
well until a man named Ed appears on the scene. Ed is, like Nat, a badminton lover
and appears to want to test his mettle on the court with Nat. Nat, who
currently holds his club’s singles championship, feels he must accept. The matches are hard fought and both men
retire to the bar for a replenishing pint after each competition.
In the
course of their apres-match conversations, Ed reveals strong opinions about
Putin, Brexit, Donald Trump and the current politics of Germany, Russia, and
the USA. Ned, the professional spook,
somehow ignores the warning signals that would perhaps have been quite obvious to
him if he were still in a foreign appointment. When a local operation exposes
Ed’s non badminton intersections with Ned’s life and the intersections with the
entirety of Her Majesty’s intelligence services you have a muddle that fuels
the reminder of the book. Along the way Le Carre has a good go at explaining plenty
of tradecraft and exposing the internecine squabbling within the upper echelons
of the government.
I felt the ending
was a bit flat and abrupt. It seemed
more like a setup for the next novel than a tying up of this one . What we do know at the end is that you can
put an old pro out to seed, but he can still run an exfiltration with the best
of them. It’s a fine cerebral read.
No comments:
Post a Comment