This is, perhaps, the greatest spy novel ever written. Clocking in at just over 200 pages, it reads like a gunshot - I finished it in less than eight hours of reading. The tension builds and rolls so brilliantly, so effortlessly, and le Carré has such a talent for deception that the ending does indeed catch you entirely off-guard. It's just bloody brilliant. Just read it - it won't take long and it'll definitely pay off. Much more about the moral questions raised over at RB: http://wp.me/pGVzJ-n8
