Going Slow

After the last few days today is one of relaxing and listening to the radio or reading a book. Perhaps a combination of them, as well as catching up on some television.

I finished al my reports from the other day, except for one which will include some internet searching.



Will probably start reading this short book today.

Book 28 - John Le Carre "A Small Town In Germany"

John Le Carre "A Small Town In Germany" (Sceptre)




It's a standalone thriller disconnected from his Smiley series, revolving around the UK diplomatic community in Bonn at the time of the Brussels treaty and the foundation of the Common Market.

Leo Hartfield has gone missing from the Embassy in Bonn a 'temporary' he had been there 20 years and appears to have had access to a lot of files in that time. The rough mannered Yorkshireman John Turner is brought in from Intelligence to find out how, why, when and whether the Russians were involved. Oh and if he could recover a certain Green File without reading the contents - with or without Leo.

The dialogue slowly builds up . perhaps a bit too slowly. The plotting describes Turner's various meetings with the key characters in the embassy - all of whom dislike him on sight and are reluctant to share any information with him. In addition There is a political crisis going on as Germany may be pulling out of the Common Market and establishing a trade Axis with Russia instead.

The ending is extremely sudden. An average exploration of the political scene in sixties Germany, it is not one of Le Carre's best works,when compared to Tinker Tailor or Smiley's People, though it all comes together quite nicely in the end.