A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre
Mar. 19th, 2015 02:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Tom Brue has inherited a doomed private British bank based in Hamburg. Alone in his office one night he receives a phone call from a young woman lawyer he has never heard of, demanding an immediate face-to-face meeting.
Her name is Annabel Richter, her client the mysterious Issa, an illegal immigrant who happens to be in possession of a key to one of the most exclusive vaults in Brue’s bank. Issa is also wanted by three of the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies.
Alive as he has never been before, Tommy Brue finds himself drawn into an unlikely alliance with this passionate young woman and the man she is willing to risk her life to save.
Brue Freres is a private British bank based in Hamburg that’s been in in slow decline for the past decade. It’s currently run by Tommy Brue who’s 60-years-old, on his second marriage and estranged from his only daughter. When Tommy gets a phone call one night from Annabel Richter, a young German human rights lawyer, he realises that the bank’s darkest secret is about to be exposed. Annabel represents Issa, a young Chechen refugee who holds the key to one of the Brue security vaults but whose terrorist links has also made him a target for the German, British and US intelligence services.
Annabel believes that Issa should leverage the security vault to buy himself his safety but Issa sees the money as tainted and wants nothing to do with it. As the security services move in, it becomes clear that Annabel, Tommy and Issa are pawns in a wider game that’s been decades in the making …
Set against the backdrop of the War on Terror, this spy thriller is perhaps one of John Le Carre’s angriest books. His views on how to gather intelligence on Islamist extremists sets out the compromises to be made and the difficulties that intelligence agencies face are dark and cynical. He also doesn’t hide his anger at the brash arrogance of the Americans and how their resort to torture and imprisonment is ultimately self-defeating. Unfortunately, Le Carre’s rage comes at the expense of the characters here. Tommy and Annabel sailed too close to stereotype for me – Annabel with her family issues and liberal guilt and Tommy with his family issues and attraction for the younger woman. Meanwhile Issa is too much of a cypher with Le Carre leaving it open to interpretation whether he is terrorist or terrorised. However, the floppy haired Gunther Bachmann just about made up for that (although I wish his relationship with Erna Frey had been developed further and indeed, I wanted to see more of her interaction with Annabel), plus I really enjoyed the delicate way Le Carre draws out the histories and competing interests of the various players, particularly in the scenes where the higher ups are brought in to rule on the proposed plan. Although this isn’t vintage Le Carre (lacking the subtlety of his earlier works), it was still an entertaining read that kept me absorbed from beginning to end.
The Verdict:
Set against the backdrop of the War on Terror, this spy thriller is perhaps one of John Le Carre’s angriest books. His views on how to gather intelligence on Islamist extremists sets out the compromises to be made and the difficulties that intelligence agencies face are dark and cynical. He also doesn’t hide his anger at the brash arrogance of the Americans and how their resort to torture and imprisonment is ultimately self-defeating. Unfortunately, Le Carre’s rage comes at the expense of the characters here. Tommy and Annabel sailed too close to stereotype for me – Annabel with her family issues and liberal guilt and Tommy with his family issues and attraction for the younger woman. Meanwhile Issa is too much of a cypher with Le Carre leaving it open to interpretation whether he is terrorist or terrorised. However, the floppy haired Gunther Bachmann just about made up for that (although I wish his relationship with Erna Frey had been developed further and indeed, I wanted to see more of her interaction with Annabel), plus I really enjoyed the delicate way Le Carre draws out the histories and competing interests of the various players, particularly in the scenes where the higher ups are brought in to rule on the proposed plan. Although this isn’t vintage Le Carre (lacking the subtlety of his earlier works), it was still an entertaining read that kept me absorbed from beginning to end.
Tom Brue has inherited a doomed private British bank based in Hamburg. Alone in his office one night he receives a phone call from a young woman lawyer he has never heard of, demanding an immediate face-to-face meeting.
Her name is Annabel Richter, her client the mysterious Issa, an illegal immigrant who happens to be in possession of a key to one of the most exclusive vaults in Brue’s bank. Issa is also wanted by three of the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies.
Alive as he has never been before, Tommy Brue finds himself drawn into an unlikely alliance with this passionate young woman and the man she is willing to risk her life to save.
Brue Freres is a private British bank based in Hamburg that’s been in in slow decline for the past decade. It’s currently run by Tommy Brue who’s 60-years-old, on his second marriage and estranged from his only daughter. When Tommy gets a phone call one night from Annabel Richter, a young German human rights lawyer, he realises that the bank’s darkest secret is about to be exposed. Annabel represents Issa, a young Chechen refugee who holds the key to one of the Brue security vaults but whose terrorist links has also made him a target for the German, British and US intelligence services.
Annabel believes that Issa should leverage the security vault to buy himself his safety but Issa sees the money as tainted and wants nothing to do with it. As the security services move in, it becomes clear that Annabel, Tommy and Issa are pawns in a wider game that’s been decades in the making …
Set against the backdrop of the War on Terror, this spy thriller is perhaps one of John Le Carre’s angriest books. His views on how to gather intelligence on Islamist extremists sets out the compromises to be made and the difficulties that intelligence agencies face are dark and cynical. He also doesn’t hide his anger at the brash arrogance of the Americans and how their resort to torture and imprisonment is ultimately self-defeating. Unfortunately, Le Carre’s rage comes at the expense of the characters here. Tommy and Annabel sailed too close to stereotype for me – Annabel with her family issues and liberal guilt and Tommy with his family issues and attraction for the younger woman. Meanwhile Issa is too much of a cypher with Le Carre leaving it open to interpretation whether he is terrorist or terrorised. However, the floppy haired Gunther Bachmann just about made up for that (although I wish his relationship with Erna Frey had been developed further and indeed, I wanted to see more of her interaction with Annabel), plus I really enjoyed the delicate way Le Carre draws out the histories and competing interests of the various players, particularly in the scenes where the higher ups are brought in to rule on the proposed plan. Although this isn’t vintage Le Carre (lacking the subtlety of his earlier works), it was still an entertaining read that kept me absorbed from beginning to end.
The Verdict:
Set against the backdrop of the War on Terror, this spy thriller is perhaps one of John Le Carre’s angriest books. His views on how to gather intelligence on Islamist extremists sets out the compromises to be made and the difficulties that intelligence agencies face are dark and cynical. He also doesn’t hide his anger at the brash arrogance of the Americans and how their resort to torture and imprisonment is ultimately self-defeating. Unfortunately, Le Carre’s rage comes at the expense of the characters here. Tommy and Annabel sailed too close to stereotype for me – Annabel with her family issues and liberal guilt and Tommy with his family issues and attraction for the younger woman. Meanwhile Issa is too much of a cypher with Le Carre leaving it open to interpretation whether he is terrorist or terrorised. However, the floppy haired Gunther Bachmann just about made up for that (although I wish his relationship with Erna Frey had been developed further and indeed, I wanted to see more of her interaction with Annabel), plus I really enjoyed the delicate way Le Carre draws out the histories and competing interests of the various players, particularly in the scenes where the higher ups are brought in to rule on the proposed plan. Although this isn’t vintage Le Carre (lacking the subtlety of his earlier works), it was still an entertaining read that kept me absorbed from beginning to end.
