Hardcover, 523 pages
English language
Published March 7, 2007 by Thorndike Press.
3.5*
Excellently read audiobook.
Plot a bit far-fetched at times, but engaging.
Writing bit up to Boyd's usual standard - the retrospective story being written 30+ years after the events was often too literary and in the head of the writer to be plausible.
A cracking novel, and the second of Boyd's works I've enjoyed adapted for television (it was the first half of Restless, as a 90 minute drama, that made me buy this). It's a gripping thriller in its own right, but with everything filtered through the lens of a modern woman, things really seem to hit home, somehow.
I adored the Le Carré reference on page 315, truly put the finishing touch on what was an excellent work of espionage, and I can't think of many British spy novels that parallel this in intensity, melancholy or effectiveness.
