A Delicate Truth

John le Carré is nothing if not the master of unease. His characters are always struggling with action vs. no action, morality vs. complacency--and this tale is no exception. So slow starting that I almost did not continue reading, I was eventually gripped by the struggle of career Foreign Office rising star, Toby Bell. His mentor, Giles Oakley, has nurtured and guided him through various postings and Toby has returned the favor by covering up an indiscretion in Berlin. Toby eventually ends up as the private secretary to a junior Cabinet minister who is so secretive that he stays in his locked office during much of the day, refuses to let Toby see his diary or prepare his briefcase for trips. Toby eventually learns that this ambitious and gullible junior minister is being led by the nose by a private information brokering group, so he secretly records a meeting. He finds out that some operation is being planned and will be carried out, but none of the details. Meanwhile, long-serving diplomatic underling Christopher Probyn is pulled into the plot and told that he will be the minister's eyes and ears on an "extraordinary rendition" of a "high value target." That is, he will observe while a terrorist is kidnapped by a combined force of British soldiers operating off the books--at the minister's request--and some mercenaries organized by the aforementioned information brokers.Three years later, through a chance encounter with one of the British soldiers, Kit, now Sir Christopher Probyn, learns that the whole secret operation was botched. There was no high value target and an innocent woman and her young child were shot to death in the process. The whole thing has been covered up. Kit enlists Toby to help him reveal this misdeed, but the information brokering firm will stop at nothing, including murder, to keep this quiet. How much are Kit and Toby willing to risk to see evil revealed and justice done?

The book was a little hard to follow at times. Places are named, but it is not always clear what the timing is until you read a bit further into a chapter. It feels like Le Carré was being just a bit too clever in this one. As always the characters are complex and convincing and the moral struggle is made altogether believable and makes you question what you would do in these people's shoes. Puts me in mind of the really excellent BBC mini-series recently aired, starring Bill Nighy, about an MI5 analyst risking it all to reveal an unholy alliance between the British prime minister and a private corporation building "black sites" for the interrogation of terrorist suspects. The first was called "Page Eight" and you can find them on Netflix or IMDB.