Year of Publication: 1999
Length: 374 pages
Genre: Thriller
What connects the murder of an English lawyer in Istanbul, a shabby children's party magician in Devon who finds a vast fortune mysteriously deposited in his daughter's trust fund, and the disappearance of the head of a once respected financial institution with ties to organised crime? Tenacious British customs officer Nat Brock investigates the mystery and uncovers a vast international criminal conspiracy.
The death of British author John le Carré, the pen name of David Cornwall, in December 2020 robbed the world of one of the great writers of popular fiction. Making his name with Cold War spy thrillers in the 1960s, le Carré managed to navigate the complex and ever shifting landscape of international politics. As with most le Carré novels this is essential of a conventional thriller and more a psychological piece about the moral and spiritual price of lives built entirely on deceit. It's not one of his best books, the book starts well and then gets bogged down in the middle with complex debates on money laundering and other legal and financial issues, but it does pick up as it moves towards it's conclusion. However, it ends so abruptly I thought my book was missing a chapter. Like a lot of John le Carrè, the characters are all deeply flawed, which makes it more realistic but also means that it's really hard to care about most of them, which really isn't good for a thriller.
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