I'm trying to be careful not to overrate this on the basis of how much I love all this other books, I mean the 22 of them that I've read. It's hard not to compare it to his others instead of just comparing it to other people's writing. By Le Carre standards, this one just doesn't measure up. I guess I'd give it 2-1/2 stars. I didn't care about the characters. The story was either not believable or it was about the most amateurish organization imaginable. The style had a very clipped, cold feel to it. Very short sentences. Jayston's narration was fine. He used a good variety of voices, but he opted for switching back to narrator's voice for all the "he said"s in middle of dialogue, often with a touch of hesitation, which disrupted the flow. I would have been happier re-reading any of his other books and skipping this one, having postponed it 30 years by this point.