Agent Running in the Field

There are few authors who can capture the grey morality of espionage better than Le Carre. Agent Running in the Field brings his spy stories right into the era of Trump and Brexit, fully incorporating all the geopolitical challenges and difficulties that the modern times have.

The story is told by Nat, an older agent runner for MI6. He has done his job on various international assignments, but is past his peak and brought home to work on some lower priority internal agents.

In many ways this novel is a throw back to some of the cold war Le Carre novels. The big bad is again Russia, the inter-agency rivalries are at the forefront of the story again. When you come to consider the current political climate it does start to make sense. All the stories of Russian meddling in western elections and referendums, the cosying up to Putin that Trump has been doing and the geopolitical shock of Brexit are all changing the power dynamics within the world again.

This is a good Le Carre novel, the setting is of the time and the twists and turns are interesting and as morally grey as any good Le Carre is