Silverview

by  John Le Carre

This book is about the British spy establishment at the present time.  

In one part of the book a "spy chief" is sent to investigate a former spy to determine if there could have been some leaks in the past.  He goes around interviewing various retired members of the spy service.

The other part of the story involves a young man who had a successful career in the financial sector in London but decides to leave it all behind to buy a bookstore in a small town.  Shortly after he opens a local man comes and after a few casual meetings the man convinces the young man to devote part of his store to a special collection of rare, intellectual books.  The young man agrees and sets the man up with a computer to help him develop a list and even source books for this collection.

The man asks the young man to deliver a letter to a woman in London for him.  The young man assumes the woman is the man's mistress and awaits a reply to the letter.

The young man finds out that his "partner" lives in a house called Silverview with his wife who is dying of cancer. The young man is invited to dinner and meets the man's wife and their daughter, who has a small child.

We find out that the man's dying wife was a key official in the spy service, her husband also played a role.

One day the young man comes to his store and finds all the computers, including the one his book partner was using have been stolen.

As the story goes on we learn that the person the "spy chief'" is investigating is the young man's partner.  The man's wife dies and the spy service is about to descend on the husband but he has anticipated this and escapes by jumping in the van of the local mailman when he comes to drop off the mail.

The book concludes with the service assuming the man was indeed leaking information because he had fallen in love with a woman who lives in the middle east.  They assume he is off to unite with her.

The young man seems to be falling for the man's daughter.

This was Le Carre's last book, finished by one of his sons.  It was an okay book but as I haven't read any of his other books I am not sure how it compares to his other books.