Not as good as he used to be. - Rated 
I have been an admirer of John Le Carre for many years and have read all his books some of them many times (the Smiley series).
Unfortunately, this book (and several more of his more recent ones) seems to me to have been produced because he wants to release a book at regular intervals not because he has a particularly riveting plot to unfold or interesting characters to describe. It is also a great pity that his blatant anti-Americanism is so strong which turns some of his novels into political tracts.
Predictable Stuff - Rated
A disappointing read.....the ending was entirely predictable
The more John LeCarre (sorry, it's just LeCarre these days!)tries to be Graham Greene, the more he moves away from the cracking spy thriller genre that made him what he is.
What a pity
Chris Howard, Tetbury, UK
Disappointing - Rated 
I was looking forward to reading this but didn't enjoy it I'm afraid. The plot was very predictable, the characterisation poor (one middle aged character's fantasies related to a young woman lawyer were just embarrassing and I didn't care much what happened to any of them. Plodded on to the end but was glad when it was over. No more like this please, Mr Cornwell.
Well Written Curates Egg. - Rated
This was a book that I couldn't quite decide on, sometimes I thought it first class, at other times it frustrated me. It's very well written, and in that respect typical Le Carre, twists, deceptions and sub plots even a German George Smiley type. However, in the end I didn't really care much about what happened to the main characters and found them lacking in depth. As for the supporting cast, stereotype seems to be the most appropriate word, in particular the Americans and it would have been better had some time been devoted to the American decision making process so that the ending made some more sense than it did. To be honest in the end it felt like a book in which the Author had lost interest and drawn to a lazy conclusion. Sorry Wanted to like it more but didn't.
Le Carre's War on the War on Terror - Rated 
John Le Carre is of course best known for his series of novels based around the Cold War. With "A Most Wanted Man" he shows that he can apply his skills equally well to events linked to the "War on Terror".
The most impressive thing about this work is the air of quiet menace which always lurks just below the surface. Many of the characters feel fairly paranoid and the author manages to get the reader to share this paranoia. He manages this without resorting to the ordinary staples of car chases and high body counts often found in so many thrillers. Indeed there is every little actual violence at all in this book but it deserves the appellation thriller so much more simply for the atmosphere the author so skilfully creates.
There are a number of decent characters who simply get caught up in the doings of good intentioned, but possibly quite evil people around them. In this way Le Carre's work illustrates the horrors of action such as extraordinary rendition taken without due process and very little evidence base. He does the world a service by exposing these evils through his craft.
| 
