A Most Wanted Man
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3.5 • 6 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A starved Russian Muslim boy is smuggled into Hamburg by night. He says his name is Issa. He has mysterious links. Annabel, a German civil rights lawyer desperate to save Issa from deportation, appeals to Tommy Brue, owner of a failing British bank. A triangle of impossible loves is born. Scenting a kill in the War on Terror, the spies of three nations converge upon the innocents. Peopled with unforgettable characters, A Most Wanted Man prickles with humour and tension until the last heart-stopping page. It is also a work of deep humanity and irresistible relevance to our times.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When boxer Melik Oktay and his mother, both Turkish Muslims living in Hamburg, take in a street person calling himself Issa at the start of this morally complex thriller from le Carr (The Mission Song), they set off a chain of events implicating intelligence agencies from three countries. Issa, who claims to be a Muslim medical student, is, in fact, a wanted terrorist and the son of Grigori Karpov, a Red Army colonel whose considerable assets are concealed in a mysterious portfolio at a Hamburg bank. Tommy Brue, a stereotypical flawed everyman caught up in the machinations of spies and counterspies, enters the plot when Issa's attorney seeks to claim these assets. The book works best in its depiction of the rivalries besetting even post-9/11 intelligence agencies that should be allies, but none of the characters is as memorable as George Smiley or Magnus Pym. Still, even a lesser le Carr effort is far above the common run of thrillers.
