One of the most entertaining books of the year

One of the best of the current writers in this field

Wonderful, great fun all round

Surely the best historical detective in the business

The finest British writer of bestselling popular fiction since le Carre... Gallagher, like le Carre, is a novelist whose themes seem to reflect something of the essence of our times, whose skill lies in embedding those themes in accessible plots

Masterful whodunit…Gallagher’s superior storytelling talents bode well for future adventures starring the well-rounded Becker

I’m not sure I can do this book justice — it’s certainly a thriller, but with a literary depth unusual in the genre, and fascinating in the complexity of its construct. Gallagher’s prose is swift, sure, and occasionally darkly comedic. Three words of advice: read this book.

[a] superbly crafted thriller … Gallagher loves character development but respects plotting enough to give it full measure. The result is that rare beast, a literary page turner.

Often intriguing... Jolene's youthful crassness and belated recognit ion or everything she lost are sharply and movingly evoked.

John le Carré takes us back to his favourite scenarios: Whitehall, the secret services, the gentleman's clubs, dodgy bankers, corrupt public schoolboys and gruesome American neo-cons . . . revelling once more in that imaginary world of secrets and lies that is le Carré's gift to us

Tense, twisty, and driven by a melancholy insight into human motivation . . . deeply compelling

John le Carré is as recognisable a writer as Dickens or Austen, with an often-imitated but never rivalled cast of seedy spies, false lovers, public schoolboys struggling with guilt, and charming but immoral leaders of the brutal establishment . . . This is vintage le Carré and highly enjoyable

Thrilling, suspenseful . . . Fans will not be disappointed

Utterly convincing characters, a tight plot . . . Wonderful

Thrilling

Choreographed with unsettling precision

When I was under house arrest I was helped by the books of John le Carré ... they were a journey into the wider world ... These were the journeys that made me feel that I was not really cut off from the rest of humankind

Plunges the reader into a modern-day thriller...Dad won't be able to put it down

[It] has all the essential ingredients of his masterpieces: the dilemmas of duty, patriotism and decency

John Le Carré at his masterful best . . . nobody does it better

Widely hailed as a return to the good old Smiley days . . . le Carré writes with laconic elegance