Amazon review - When boxer Melik Oktay and his mother, both Turkish Muslims living in Hamburg, take in a street person calling himself Issa at the start of this morally complex thriller from le Carré (The Mission Song), they set off a chain of events implicating intelligence agencies from three countries. Issa, who claims to be a Muslim medical student, is, in fact, a wanted terrorist and the son of Grigori Karpov, a Red Army colonel whose considerable assets are concealed in a mysterious portfolio at a Hamburg bank. Tommy Brue, a stereotypical flawed everyman caught up in the machinations of spies and counterspies, enters the plot when Issa's attorney seeks to claim these assets. The book works best in its depiction of the rivalries besetting even post-9/11 intelligence agencies that should be allies, but none of the characters is as memorable as George Smiley or Magnus Pym. Still, even a lesser le Carré effort is far above the common run of thrillers. (Oct.)
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John Le Carre is a wonderful writer - his previous novels were excellent. What persuaded me to read this one was 'A Constant Gardener'. This was pure brilliance - both the book and the film - a real pleasure.
With this book I was expecting something similar but I did not get it, well I did not have the endurance / patience to find it. There was simply too much to read - and this was only the first 3 chapters - I did not complete this book..
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