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Dec 18, 2020Maoisdead rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This is fabulous writing. Le Carre writes by innuendo as much as by word. This writing is so good that, for me, the fact that plot and genre were still a bit ambiguous at the 33%-completed mark amazed, but didn't deter me in the least in my headlong plunge into the story. It is mystery of a higher order when the reader and the characters are equally unsure of the perils to come. Le Carre creates mystery, menace, and ambiguity more with dialog and subtext than with text. There is no plot exposition; the plot reveals itself inexorably to the attentive reader. It takes work to read between the lines, and the discovery is worth the effort. Characters are solid, engaging, sympathetic, trapped by forces they can only hope to escape, never to control. This is some of Le Carre's best writing.