Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner
Single and Single
Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
John LeCarre
Class/Genre: Mystery
Scribner, Mar 1999, $26.00, 347 pp.
Tiger Single runs the London based investment firm, SINGLE AND SINGLE. His company handles millions made from the international sales of drugs and arms. Especially lucrative to the firm is the former Soviet states, whose criminal elements have an ally in the British company.
Tiger wants the business to be a family affair. He pressures his son Oliver to begin to learn the business and ultimately take it over when Tiger retires. However, Oliver loathes the illicit dealings of his father and begins talking to the customs blokes. However the situation abruptly changes when his father's former allies in Russia try to wrestle the business from Tiger, using any means possible. Oliver knows he must decide between his family by rescuing his father or justice, by turning him over to the law.
Of all the Cold War espionage novelists, John Le Carre has switched to the post Soviet Union environment without missing a beat. His latest story, SINGLE & SINGLE, is an intriguing look into the so-called legitimate banking of the West and its ties to the criminal elements of the East. The story line is crisp and filled with action. The sub-plot portraying the father-son conflict is well designed, but fails to live up to Mr. Le Carre's previous novel (THE TAILOR OF PANAMA) because Oliver never quite emerges as a complete person. This novel is a well-done tale, but not quite at the level of some of the author's previous masterpieces.
Harriet Klausner
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner
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