"Luke has long ago given up trying to judge the world by its face. He has studied these faces numberless times, but still finds nothing in them he wouldn't find across the desk from him in any Hampstead estate agent's office."
While on vacation in Antigua with his girlfriend Gail, Peregrine "Perry" Makepiece, an Oxford don in the midst of an early mid-life crisis--or a third-life crisis as some are calling that thirty-something restlessness--happens to play a match of tennis with Dima, the world's best money launderer. Dima also happens to desperately need Britain's "fair play" law enforcement to extract him from a little tangle: The voya plan to eliminate him once he has signed his position over to the "Prince." During a clandestine meeting in a crumbling palace in Antigua, Perry accepts the responsibility of carrying this information back to his home country.
British agents interrogate Perry and Gail until they are convinced of their story's veracity. Hector directs this sensitive operation while Luke, a diminutive agent (both physically and emotionally) and Ollie, a huskily built master-of-all-accents, work alongside these unlikely spies. Gail's affections are immediately captured by the plight of the innocent girls who are caught up in the chaos of their family's Russian mafia ties.
Dima's defection provides valuable information for the British, but the truth he holds also endangers Britain's economy, which is so emaciated it hungers for cash flow from any source, no matter how sordid. From the moment we read of Dima's efforts to save his family and expose the hidden players in this international game, we know it's futile to hope for justice.
I truly enjoyed reading le Carre's newest novel, although it still fails to measure up to my favorite, his classic The Little Drummer Girl.
Overall grade: A-
Character development: B+ (Luke was a pitifully real character, but I wasn't as impressed with Gail.)
Setting: B+
Pace: A
Writing style: A
