Single & Single

“Any reader who feared that the end of the Cold War would deprive Mr. le Carré of his subject can now feel a measure of relief. If anything, his subject of East-West misunderstanding has grown richer, and he now possesses vast new territories to mine" (The New York Times).

New York Times bestselling author John le Carré's novels deftly navigate us through the intricate shadow worlds of international intrigue with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him unprecedented worldwide acclaim.

A lawyer from a London finance house is shot dead on a Turkish hillside by people with whom he thought he was in business. A children's magician in the English countryside is asked to explain the arrival of more than five million pounds sterling in his young daughter's modest trust.

In Single & Single, le Carré masterfully establishes a sequence of events whose connections are mysterious, complex and compelling. He tells of corrupt liaisons between criminal elements in the new Russian states and the world of legitimate finance in the West. He also paints an intimate portrait of two families: one Russian, the other English; one trading illicit goods, the other laundering the profits; one betrayed by a son-in-law, the other betrayed, and redeemed, by a son.

Filial piety meets Western money laundering

Having le Carre narrate is great, because you know the characters are coming through the way he intended them. Just a fun tightly woven drama about Western corruption and post-soviet Mafia, with le Carre's wonderful evocation of London inter-agency law enforcement. Same type of culture as in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy."

Another Fine LeCarre Tale

Enjoyed every minute of it, and superbly narrated by the author. I highly recommend if you enjoy LeCarre's carefully plotted stories and rich character paintings.

True performance art...

Another great novel by the Dean of spycraft. For inveterate LeCarre readers, having the author read his own work makes this read infinitely more rich. This listens like an old time serial radio drama with Mr LeCarre performing all of the characters. I want to go back and read his other novels now that I've heard him speak through these characters

Another great work bu Le Carre'

Look, if you like spy novels, then you must like Le Carre'. And this book needs to be part of your collections. Well done.

Might have been good, but impossible to hear

In fairness, I didn't listen to the book so can't say how good or bad it is/was. And the reason i couldn't listen to it was that the narration is VERY poor for listening in a car. Most of the time the narrator speaks in a looooow and deep voice which forces you to crank up the volume. This is interspersed with parts that are REALLY loud. No way to maintain a balance. The low speaking portions were so frustrating that inspite of really trying to listen, I just couldn't.

Pity....