If there is one author I absolutely adore it is John LeCarre, his writing is just so wonderful that I can’t help but love every single one of his books, getting fully sucked into the story. I’ve read a few of his books now so I know what to expect, a great story, brilliant multidimensional characters and plenty of twists and turns along the way, so with this latest read I was expecting great things and I was not disappointed.
A Delicate Truth is a recent release making its first appearance back in 2013, it was something that at the time I saw everyone reading so clearly everyone else loves LeCarre’s writing as much as I do. Most of the books I have read so far have been set in between the 50’s and 80’s with more covert spying, the different wars, old methods and in my opinion the real exciting heyday of spies. This novel is set around present times with mobile phones, modern technology and less secrecy and more bureaucracy instead.
The novel mainly centres around two characters; Toby Bell, spy turned Private Secretary to MP Fergus Quinn at the Foreign Office and Sir Christopher (Kit) Probyn, who worked in civil service before being selected for a covert operation. The story unravels from the two perspectives and what they know at the time, starting with Christopher, code name Paul Anderson, and what he sees happen during the operation and with Toby it is what he sees and overhears during his time working for the Minister. From chapter 3, we find out more, firstly we see where they are 3 years later and from then we start to fill in the gaps and find out what actually happened on that day. The story slowly unravels in true LeCarre style offering piece by piece slowly but in a satisfying way.
He is the true master of spy novels in my opinion and though this one is a more modern day, PC approach to spying he still manages to create a story that is utterly compelling throughout making you want to read on to find out more. The twists are unexpected, the story is so well thought through and the characters are believable, some likable and some not. It’s clear to see why this was such a popular release with it being a truly wonderful novel to read from first to last page.
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