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Our Kind of Traitor

3.28 of 5 stars 3.28 · rating details · 2,894 ratings · 573 reviews

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The unrivaled master of spy fiction returns with a taut and suspenseful tale of dirty money and dirtier politics.

For nearly half a century, John le Carré's limitless imagination has enthralled millions of readers and moviegoers around the globe. From the cold war to the bitter fruits of colonialism to unrest in the Middle East, he has reinvented the spy nove...more

Hardcover, 306 pages

Published October 12th 2010 by Viking Adult (first published January 1st 2010)

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May 16, 2012 Sketchbook rated it 2 of 5 stars

If you're a Russian godfather who wants to spill evil
banking beans involving the west, do you just snaffle
a cute UK couple on holiday in Antigua and grunt, "Take
me to your leader" ?

LeC moves briskly fr the Cold War to the Russ mafia and
corrupt banking, suggested by news stories. Very good.
Then, damnit, the way he drawls his story -- exposition,
Talking Heds, fractured sequence, past/present tense --
is downright deadly.

Meantime, we'd all like to know his theories on the young
UK spy found dead at h...more

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Sep 09, 2010 Amanda rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, just-can-t-finish

This was my first spy thriller novel by this author. It was SO hard for me to get into it. I was confused about who was talking, the first person/third person switching made me crazy. This type of writing works for some people, it's just not my style.
I received this as an advance uncorrected proof that I won in a Goodreads giveaway.

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Jan 04, 2012 Ian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: spy

I usually enjoy about 2 out of 3 of Le Carre's novels. I loved the Constant Gardener (and the film is just as good as the book). Our Kind of Traitor is a little slow to start and I almost abandoned it (as I did with Mission Song) but kept going and then hit that miraculous place in a good book where things just start to "click" and then settled in for a great read.

Le Carre is not in a good mood. He is not hopeful. Which is not to say that there are no more heroes in Le Carre’s world because tha...more

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Nov 12, 2010 Xirxe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literatur, verschenkte-bücher

John le Carré, ein Name der für spannende Agenten- und Spionagethriller steht - mit dieser Erwartungshaltung machte ich mich an sein neuestes Werk. Ich las und las, amüsierte mich prächtig und ertappte mich dennoch dabei, immer oberflächlicher über den Text hinwegzugehen, bis ich bei Seite 202 (ca. der Hälfte) das Buch resigniert zuschlug. Denn von Spannung - keine Spur. Welch eine Enttäuschung!
Doch ich hatte mich selbst in die Irre geführt, denn bei genauem Hinschauen ist (außer bei der Einord...more John le Carré, ein Name der für spannende Agenten- und Spionagethriller steht - mit dieser Erwartungshaltung machte ich mich an sein neuestes Werk. Ich las und las, amüsierte mich prächtig und ertappte mich dennoch dabei, immer oberflächlicher über den Text hinwegzugehen, bis ich bei Seite 202 (ca. der Hälfte) das Buch resigniert zuschlug. Denn von Spannung - keine Spur. Welch eine Enttäuschung!
Doch ich hatte mich selbst in die Irre geführt, denn bei genauem Hinschauen ist (außer bei der Einordung bei diversen Buchläden) nirgendwo die Rede von Krimi oder Thriller. 'Verräter wie wir' ist eine Lektüre, die zwar im Agentenmilieu spielt und gegen Ende einen eindrucksvollen Spannungsbogen aufweist, aber dennoch nicht mehr oder weniger als ein Roman. Also schickte ich meine Erwartungen in die Wüste und begann nochmal von vorn. Und siehe da....
Perry und Gail, ein wohl recht typisch britisches, linksliberales Pärchen mit einer eher skeptischen Haltung gegenüber den staatlichen Institutionen, lernen in einem Urlaub einen russischen Oligarchen kennen, der sie unversehens zu seinen Vertrauten kürt. Plötzlich finden die Beiden sich wieder in der Rolle als Mittler zwischen dem britischen Geheimdienst und einem potentiellen russischen Überläufer.
LeCarré verwendet viele Seiten auf die genaue Darstellung der einzelnen Personen, inbesondere auf die seiner beiden Protagonisten Gail und Perry. Es gelingt ihm bravourös, nicht nur sehr detailliert sondern auch voller Witz die Eigenheiten und Widersprüchlichkeiten der Handelnden darzustellen. Wie Perry beispielsweise, der ewige Kritiker und Verächter der britischen Politik, der sich plötzlich als inoffizieller Geheimdienstmitarbeiter wiederfindet - und es wider Erwarten geniesst. Oder Dima, der russische Oligarch, der England liebt und bewundert und alle britischen Literaturklassiker besitzt, ohne vermutlich einen einzigen davon gelesen zu haben. Dies alles ist zudem in einer wunderbaren Sprache verfasst, über die man sich auf jeder Seite auf's Neue freut.
Weshalb dann trotzdem nicht die volle Punktzahl? Weil bis zur ca. der Hälfte des Buches die Menge der Perspektivenwechsel etwas überhand nimmt. In einem Gespräch mit dem Geheimdienst, das bis dorthin die Rahmenhandlung darstellt, berichten Gail und Perry über ihre Begegnung mit Dima. Hierbei werden Rück- und Einblicke auf und in die Lebensläufe der Beteiligten eingeschoben, wobei der Großteil dieser einzelnen Abschnitte meist nicht mehr als 4-6 Seiten umfasst, sodass zumindest der Beginn etwas unübersichtlich wirkt .
Aber abgesehen von dieser kleinen Mäkelei: grandiose Unterhaltung mit (wahrscheinlich) durchaus realistischen Einblicken in das schmutzige Geldwäschergeschäft.(less)

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Mar 13, 2011 SlowRain rated it 4 of 5 stars

This novel marks a return of sorts for le Carré. Firstly, it's a return to the topic of Russia, something that has been absent from the last few books he has written. It's also a return to his highly-stylized narrative, his great dialog, and decent characterization, all of which were absent from his previous novel, "A Most Wanted Man". However, what remains is still what I call an 'activist novel', which is pretty much what le Carré's last five novels have all been about. But this time it has be...more

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Oct 11, 2010 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nov-dec-2010

Much to the dismay of many longtime fans, le Carré chose to keep up with the times after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet, despite his shift from Cold War-era espionage to more contemporary themes, le Carré's signature stark prose, pitch-perfect dialogue, authentic characters, and moral indignation have stood the test of time. The critics were pleased to see "the master" (Telegraph) back in action, but some had reservations: While the Guardian lamented the "long, fussily narrated opening,"...more

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May 17, 2013 Robert rated it 2 of 5 stars

Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carré is a novel about a Russian money-launderer (Dima) who seeks the help of a friendly British couple (Perry and Gail) when they meet on the island of Antigua. Dima's need: to reach British intelligence and defect, not from the USSR, but from the Russian mafia he is fatally associated with.

Perry is a dissatisfied academic; Gail is a rising barrister. Neither of them is connected to British intelligence, but Perry hazards a guess that an Oxford associate might be...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Ingrid Verschelling rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

John le Carré is bekend door zijn Koude Oorlog verhalen. De boeken, die zich na de Koude oorlog afspelen gaan allemaal over hebzucht en corruptie. Corruptie is overal en de verhalen zijn dus voor het oprapen. Zijn werk is eigenlijk een kritiek op het James Bond genre. Hij probeert van zijn personages mensen van vlees en bloed te maken, echte mensen met gewone banen. Ze zijn vaak realistischer en minder heroïsch, dit maakt dat zijn boeken geloofwaardiger overkomen. Dit boek vertelt over de Russis...more

John le Carré is bekend door zijn Koude Oorlog verhalen. De boeken, die zich na de Koude oorlog afspelen gaan allemaal over hebzucht en corruptie. Corruptie is overal en de verhalen zijn dus voor het oprapen. Zijn werk is eigenlijk een kritiek op het James Bond genre. Hij probeert van zijn personages mensen van vlees en bloed te maken, echte mensen met gewone banen. Ze zijn vaak realistischer en minder heroïsch, dit maakt dat zijn boeken geloofwaardiger overkomen. Dit boek vertelt over de Russische maffia en de nieuwe Rijken in Rusland.

Ons soort verrader begint op het Caribische eiland Antigua, waar Perry Makepiece en zijn vriendin Gail Perkins vakantie houden. Perry is docent Engelse literatuur aan de Universiteit van Oxford. Hij houdt in zijn vrije tijd van bergbeklimmen en tennissen. Gail is advocate. Na een spelletje tennis worden ze voorgesteld aan Dima, een Rus. Hij is miljonair en heeft een eigen schiereiland. Hij is crimineel sinds zijn veertiende en overleefde 15 jaar in ijskoud Kolyma, één van de wreedste kampen. Dima Krasnov is lid van de Russische maffia en heeft zich sindsdien opgewerkt tot de grootse geldwitwasser van Rusland. Hij wil Rusland verlaten, omdat hij bedreigd wordt door de nieuwe opperbaas van de maffia, die de Prins wordt genoemd. De Zeven Broers is een samenwerking van diverse bendes. Hij was hun vaste bankier. Zijn partner Misha wordt vermoord en Dima ontfermt zich over diens twee kinderen. Hij weet teveel en wil, dat zij hem helpen: hij vertelt alles wat hij weet over het witwassen en hij krijgt in ruil asiel in Engeland met zijn familie. Perry en Gail raken al snel in de ban van Dima en zijn familie. Ze zijn gefascineerd door hem en willen hem en zijn familie helpen. Ze worden als ze weer in Engeland terug zijn intensief ondervraagd door een subafdeling van de geheime dienst en ingezet om het overlopen van Dima te begeleiden. Die gaan ook uitzoeken of de informatie van de Russische witwasser wel klopt. Roland Garros is de plaats waar Perry weer heeft afgesproken met de Russische zakenman Dima voor een oriënterend gesprek. De finale van 2009 wordt gespeeld, waarin Federer wint van Söderling. Hoe krijg je een heel gezin naar een ander land, dat continu in de gaten wordt gehouden door de Russische maffia?

Ons soort verrader is een aanval op de corruptie van de Britse ondernemingen, in de regering, de kranten en speciaal de City, waar met bloedgeld wordt gehandeld en geïnvesteerd. Le Carré beschrijft een wereld waarin gangsters van nut kunnen zijn voor de overheid, een wereld vol corruptie en intriges. In de Guardian heeft een artikel gestaan: "Drugsgeld heeft banken overeind gehouden in wereldwijde crisis. $352 miljard was effectief witgewassen door financiele instituten." http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009.... De banken nemen geld aan van iedereen, zelfs drugsbaronnen, om te overleven. Misschien is dit wel de inspiratie geweest voor John le Carré.

Het verhaal heeft een wat trage start met vele flashbacks. De feiten worden helder en beknopt weergegeven. John le Carré schrijft heel deskundig en met veel inzicht in de financiële wereld. Hij gebruikt meerdere van zijn favoriete thema’s, zoals verraad. Ik vind zijn karakters te weinig uitgewerkt; het meeste komen we nog te weten van Luke Weaver, een lid van de geheime dienst. De finale van 2009 van Roland Garros, waarin Federer wint van Söderling, wordt zeer deskundig beschreven.

Toch heb ik wel wat kanttekeningen:

· om een goede thriller of roman te schrijven, moet je je lezers kunnen intrigeren. Naar mijn mening is Le Carré daar veel te weinig in geslaagd. Halverwege het boek was er nog niet veel gebeurd. Perry en Gail hebben kennis gemaakt met Dima, ze zijn ondervaagd door Luke en Yvonne en er is een nieuwe afdeling van de Britse geheime dienst opgezet om deze operatie te begeleiden. Twee hele hoofdstukken worden gebruikt om de operatie uit te leggen aan de chef in een kelder in Bloomsbury.

· Bij zo’n soort verhaal hoor je achterdocht te hebben bij alle personages. Hier weet je gewoon al wie de bad guys zijn. Bij de verhalen van Ludlum wist je gewoon niet wie je vertrouwen kon. Dacht je, dat die persoon te vertrouwen was, kwam er een wending in het verhaal en was het weer helemaal anders.

· Als je als miljonair en gangster asiel wil aanvragen in Engeland, zou je je dan richten tot twee vakantiegangers? Of zou Perry zoveel indruk hebben gemaakt op Dima met zijn sportieve gedrag? Als je daar zelf op vakantie was, zou je je dan inlaten met de Russische maffia? En dan de Britse geheime dienst: ik vind het vreemd, dat zij de hele operatie overlaten aan Perry en Gail. Dat is toch meer voor getrainde mensen, zou je zeggen.

Dima dacht Perry zeker wel te kunnen vertrouwen, omdat hij tijdens het spelletje tennis heel sportief was. Hij was ‘de hemel in gepromoveerd’ en werd de Professor genoemd. In die wereld zijn er spionnen en dubbelspionnen. Wie is er nu te vertrouwen? ‘Diplomaten liegen in het belang van het land, politici liegen om hun hachje te redden.’ Verderop in het boek wordt het nog een keer aangehaald door de geheime dienst: de Professor staat garant voor fair play.

Ons soort verrader viel mij tegen. Het is misschien wel deskundig geschreven, maar ik vond de karakters veel te oppervlakkig, zodat je niet echt met hen meeleefde. Ik werd zelfs geïrriteerd door bepaalde zinsconstructies. Spannend vond ik het ook niet. Ik heb het alleen uitgelezen, omdat ik er een recensie over wilde schrijven. Wat ik wel beangstigend vind, is de wereld waar le Carré nu over schrijft. Toen hij nog over de Koude oorlog schreef, wist je nog wie de vijand was. Nu kan die van alle kanten komen.
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Feb 28, 2013 J rated it 4 of 5 stars

BEWARE OF SPOILERS. I DON'T HIDE OR PROMOTE MY REVIEWS.

I thought -- wrongly -- that John Le Carre hadn't written lately. I also wrongly thought his novels were limited to the Cold War era. I'm glad to be disabused of my error.

I believe this novel is shorter than Le Carre's novels of yore. But, boy, is it packed -- with plot turns, one-ups-manship bycharacters, inner dialogue (characters deciding what and how much to tell each other), as well as effective shifts in the story-telling, between past...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Surreysmum rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, passed-on, thrillers

Loved this one. My only other Le Carré to date is "Spy Who Came Into the Cold", which it took me a while to settle into, until I realized that no-one (including the narrative voice) was to be trusted. In this one, we are given a pair of outsiders, not unsophisticated but definitely naive, as our way in to the desperately tricky and ultimately depressing world of the spy and the international-financial-criminal-getting-out. The true villains of the piece hang around the fringes of the scenes (and...more

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Jun 28, 2012 Joe Ollinger rated it 3 of 5 stars

LeCarre tends to write slower, more cerebral stuff, and this is no exception. This is a more of a drama set in the world of espionage than a spy thriller. The characters are vivid and the world feels quite real. The downside of this is that the book spends a lot of time on mundane details of character, and the premise and plot are more believable than fun.

The work splits its narrative into the perspectives of several characters, working through their thoughts ind feelings in much detail. This bo...more

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May 30, 2012 Joel Margolese rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Our Kind of Traitor" brings Le Carré back to his beloved, if that's the right word, world of British Intelligence in all its bureaucratic glory up against Russians. Though now, the Russians are criminals rather than the KGB or FSB. As you'd hope for and expect, most of the characters have doubts and a sense of morality that makes them question their actions and role in this play. And it is a play, and they are aware that they are trapped in the sequence, just like the "Theatre of the Real" from...more

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Nov 09, 2011 Nick Sweeney rated it 3 of 5 stars

I think this is a return to form for John Le Carre. I haven’t liked the last few at all. This novel strays into Eric Ambler territory, in having the protagonists (the goodies, anyway) as ordinary joes, rather than professional spies. A relatively simple problem: Dima, a big-time money-launderer from Moscow, knows the details of every huge laundering scam for the foreseeable past, involving a lot of otherwise respectable people; he wants to do the equivalent of long-gone Le Carre baddies, and ‘de...more I think this is a return to form for John Le Carre. I haven’t liked the last few at all. This novel strays into Eric Ambler territory, in having the protagonists (the goodies, anyway) as ordinary joes, rather than professional spies. A relatively simple problem: Dima, a big-time money-launderer from Moscow, knows the details of every huge laundering scam for the foreseeable past, involving a lot of otherwise respectable people; he wants to do the equivalent of long-gone Le Carre baddies, and ‘defect to the West’ with his knowledge. The usual conditions apply, of a new life for him, his wife and his family, in the brash new post-Soviet oligarch style to which they have all become accustomed. However, there will be a lot of negotiation involved in this, and the extra complication that the new young guns behind Dima have already decided that he’s surplus to requirements. Dima starts the ball rolling when he runs into Perry and Gail, a thirty-something couple, on a tennis holiday.

I don’t know if Le Carre is trying to use tennis as a metaphor for what will occur – the sparring, volleys, the psychological warfare, the wrong-footing of the opponent, the guesswork at the next move; it seems a corny device to use, but it works without the reader even having to think about that.

Gail is a barrister, and Perry more complicated, in transition from Oxford donship to the desire to use his skills in a more necessary way, so he is up for a change in his life. The meeting of the three is the catalyst for all that will happen later, the steering of the story through the machinations of those with an interest in having Dima and in getting rid of him.

This sounds dismissive, but isn’t meant to be: the characters are, to my mind, the ‘usual’ Le Carre crew. The Russians are sketchily drawn, I think, very much baddies, and Dima’s brash ‘new gangster’ persona is rendered in a way that is very recognisable – a trans-European style of English peppered with much use of inappropriate swearing, a brash and confrontational style. His twin boys are much the same. His wife and daughter suffer, to my mind, from being ‘over-enigmatised’ (not sure if there is such a word), which locks their characters away a little too much – I really wasn’t sure what purpose the daughter played in the story. The Brits, including Gail and Perry, who supposedly live in the real world, also seem cut from the same cloth: a vaguely upper-middle class milieu which determines their way of speaking, what they wear, what they drink, and as such they become a little predictable at times.

This all sounds as if I didn’t enjoy the book, but I did, and very much. I read it on holiday (abandoned my Kindle when I found this book in the ‘library’ of discarded holiday reads at the apartment block I was staying in, among celebs’ and bank robbers’ autobiographies, and stories featuring the SAS) and as such it was a great read indeed. A great book, though? Not compared to, say, The Honourable Schoolboy. As ever, I’ll look forward to the next one but, unlike the Smileys, I don’t think I’ll be reading this one again.(less)

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Aug 01, 2011 Michael Graeme rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If what you know of the world comes from newspapers, or from the T.V. news, then your view is naive, selective, abridged and childish. If you have any mature sense at all then I think you appreciate this may be true.

All right - so, I'm naive and childish,... hopelessly so. It's the only way I can go on living in my personally simplified version of reality. Reading Le Carre though connects me with another, darker, reality, one I fear might be closer to the truth, whether it's "cold war", or whate...more

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Jul 29, 2011 James Schubring rated it 4 of 5 stars

There is always more potential in a John le Carre novel than in anyone else writing books. There is also, almost always, some experimental flaw that's bigger than anyone else's. I've learned to take the good and ignore the bad. He writes bigger books than almost anyone else, enthralling even when they're flawed.

Here we have the recruitment of a moneyman from the Russian mafia by the British Secret Service. Dima, 'our kind of traitor,' is the most interesting, wound-up, larger-than-life, nervy ch...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Jay Connor rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not since Graham Green's "Our Man in Havana" has an author, here John le Carre, had such literate, yet tongue-in-cheek, fun with an accidental spy.

Perry and his girlfriend, Gail, are approached by Dima, a money laundering Russian of international proportions, who is seeking asylum in Great Britian. In the course of their becoming pawns to the machinations of several spy agencies, as well as the Russian mafia, we discover how we too are, in many ways, pawns in a global world financial order whe...more

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Jun 08, 2011 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

Amazingly, given my love for thrillers and crime novels, this was the first Le Carré I have read.

Did I enjoy it? Yes. I quickly buried myself in the book, sucked in by Le Carré's fast moving plot, the collision between the ordinary world and the criminal and spy worlds, and the all too believable government corruption.

I didn't like the book enormously though, hence the 3 star rating. I found both Perry and Gail to be rather annoying characters and did not particularly sympathise with their pli...more

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Apr 18, 2011 Yossarian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Le Carrè, anche in questo romanzo, privilegia il messaggio rispetto all’articolazione di una trama e di una narrativa efficace.
Le prime 100 pagine servono a selezionare i fedeli lettori delle lontane avventure di Smiley, ancora speranzosi di trovare una talpa all’altezza dei tempi, dai lettori in cerca di emozioni o di una qualche sostanza narrativa. Infatti tocca sorbirsi lo scrittore ormai ottantenne che esprime a tratti una narrazione in prima persona nei panni di una splendida avvocatessa tr...more

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Jan 02, 2011 Mal Warwick rated it 3 of 5 stars

David John Moore Cornwell--the man the world has come to know as John le Carre--was the son of a con man and a mother he met only at age 21. He spent years in the 1950s and 1960s working for MI5 and MI6 in the most difficult years of the Cold War. His frequently troubled life experiences afforded him the real-world experience that lent such authenticity and depth to the Cold War espionage novels he wrote so ably in the decades to come.

Le Carre's conflicted alter ego, George Smiley, the protagoni...more David John Moore Cornwell--the man the world has come to know as John le Carre--was the son of a con man and a mother he met only at age 21. He spent years in the 1950s and 1960s working for MI5 and MI6 in the most difficult years of the Cold War. His frequently troubled life experiences afforded him the real-world experience that lent such authenticity and depth to the Cold War espionage novels he wrote so ably in the decades to come.

Le Carre's conflicted alter ego, George Smiley, the protagonist of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) and other early le Carre novels, embodied the inner doubts of that seemingly simpler time that foreshadowed the distrust and insecurities of the 60s and 70s, once we had lost our faith in the institutions that dominated our world.

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, le Carre skillfully adapted, turning to writing about the more complex, multipolar world that has become ever more familiar to us. His field of battle was still espionage. But his subtext, increasingly, was politics--politics on the grand, international scale. Le Carre's profound distaste for U.S. interventionist policies emerged clearly. Similarly, he showed his hand (most dramatically in The Constant Gardener) for the large, multinational corporations that have come to overshadow the lives we lead. His characters still emerged as fully formed human beings, for the most part. But his writing took on a moralistic tone that some readers found objectionable.

Le Carre's latest work, Our Kind of Traitor, bears a stronger thematic resemblance to the Smiley novels than most of his other recent books. The protagonist--a young, unmarried English couple, actually--found themselves mysteriously caught up in a bizarre espionage caper more complex than any George Smiley might have conjured up. The story revolves around a Russian mafia boss (who proudly calls himself the world's "number one money-launderer") and the attempts of a renegade in the English secret service to bring him and his family to asylum in Britain. In the renegade agent's bruising battles with the powers that be to gain the authority for his plan, and in the doubts and recriminations of the young couple he has dragged into the action, there is much that's reminiscent of Smiley's tortured qualms about the moral implications of his work. Four decades later, MI6 is a different beast, of course--a shadow of its former self, sometimes struggling to justify its existence. But Our Kind of Traitor awakens the same sort of moral ambiguity and distrust for authority and convention as did The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.(less)

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Dec 30, 2010 William Breakstone rated it 5 of 5 stars

BOOK REVIEW

Our Kind of Hero by John le Carre

Reviewed by Bill Breakstone, November 16, 2010

The English author John le Carre has written 22 novels, the first being Call for the Dead, published in 1961. I have read and enjoyed every one. He is one of those authors I just can’t get enough of.

His latest work is Our Kind of Hero, and has been critically acclaimed as one of his best. I don’t know if I would go that far, but it is a tremendously good read.

The story opens at a Caribbean island resort, wh...more BOOK REVIEW

Our Kind of Hero by John le Carre

Reviewed by Bill Breakstone, November 16, 2010

The English author John le Carre has written 22 novels, the first being Call for the Dead, published in 1961. I have read and enjoyed every one. He is one of those authors I just can’t get enough of.

His latest work is Our Kind of Hero, and has been critically acclaimed as one of his best. I don’t know if I would go that far, but it is a tremendously good read.

The story opens at a Caribbean island resort, where Oxford professor Perry Makepiece is vacationing with his long-time companion Gail Perkins. Perry is a top-flight amateur tennis player, and is introduced by the resort’s tennis pro to a mysterious Russian national named “Dima,” also a splendid player, but no match for Makepiece, who “sandbags” the two sets in a typically and gentlemanly British show of fairness and good sportsmanship. This immediately impresses Dima, and the two and Gail become intimate friends. A bit too intimate, it turns out.

For Dima is the world’s most powerful money launderer, and is near the top of the Russian mafia. However, there is big trouble in Moscow’s underworld, and Dima wants out, for both himself and his family. He confides all this with Perry, and asks the Oxford Don if he is in reality a spy. When Perry truthfully says “absolutely not,” Dima asks if he has any contacts within MI6. Dima has some state secrets that should very much interest them, and he proceeds to fill Perry in. Perry immediately realizes that Dima’s secrets are powerful stuff indeed, in that he places several highly positioned British diplomats right in the middle of the Russian Mafia’s influence. I won’t divulge any more of the storyline than that; let the reader take it from there.

The author’s characterizations are brilliantly realized, and his reserved, very English method of storytelling has always fascinated this reader, and does so here once again. Le Carre is nearing his 70th birthday, but has lost none of his narrative powers. His fans are many; then again there are readers who have never taken a liking to his style. Count me among the former. May he write many more tales such as this one, and enjoy decades more of good health and literary happiness.
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Dec 14, 2010 Blog on Books rated it 4 of 5 stars

The twenty-one novels written by John le Carre over the course of his fifty year career can be rather neatly divided into two distinct categories: the Cold War espionage tales of East versus West, followed by the post-Soviet explorations of conspiracy and corruption played out in the morally murky world of unbridled capitalism. The pinnacle of the first era is generally acknowledged to be the “Smiley Trilogy”, comprised of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, “The Honourable Schoolboy”, and “Smiley’s...more The twenty-one novels written by John le Carre over the course of his fifty year career can be rather neatly divided into two distinct categories: the Cold War espionage tales of East versus West, followed by the post-Soviet explorations of conspiracy and corruption played out in the morally murky world of unbridled capitalism. The pinnacle of the first era is generally acknowledged to be the “Smiley Trilogy”, comprised of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, “The Honourable Schoolboy”, and “Smiley’s People”. Le Carre’s latest book, “Our Kind Of Traitor” (Viking) may prove to be the crown jewel of his latter work.
The elements of the story are relatively straightforward, especially when compared with some of the author’s more Byzantine novels. A young English couple, Perry and Gail, are vacationing in Antigua when they’re approached by Dima, a garrulous Russian who insists on having a tennis match with the athletically gifted Perry. Dima, however, turns out to be a vor – the Russian Mafia’s version of a made man – and he wants much more from Perry and Gail than holiday companionship and some friendly competition. Claiming to be the world’s top money launderer, Dima hopes to trade his secrets to the British Intelligence Service in exchange for asylum for himself and his large, complicated family. For reasons that are never entirely clear to Perry and Gail, Dima has determined that they should act as his representatives in presenting his offer to the authorities. Those authorities, as it turns out, are also eager to enlist the couple’s services in bringing Dima and his explosive knowledge into the fold. For reasons of their own, which the author manages to make plausible, the couple agrees to cooperate. Their subsequent efforts to deliver the gangster and his family safely to Britain make up the surface events of the plot.
But, as with all of le Carre’s writing, the true artistry lies between the lines. As the story unfolds, the author moves deftly from one character’s point of view to another, revealing the evolving relationships among them in elegantly nuanced prose. During the course of their covert operation, Perry and Gail and their spook supervisors, Hector and Luke, become increasingly involved not only with each other, but also with Dima and his family, especially his beautiful but troubled fifteen year old daughter Natasha. Le Carre’s portrayal of these various emotional undercurrents is both touching and heartbreaking.
Among the press materials Viking has sent out with “Our Kind Of Traitor” is an article from The Guardian newspaper alleging that certain cash-strapped banks kept themselves afloat during the 2008 global financial crisis by effectively laundering $352 billion in criminal proceeds, most of it drug money. Without revealing details, suffice to say that le Carre introduces several characters who have a strong interest in making sure Dima’s secrets remain exactly that. The novel’s final sequence describes the attempt to smuggle Dima from a safe-house in Switzerland to London. Using masterfully oblique, understated language, le Carre creates an atmosphere of foreboding and suspense that quite literally had my heart pounding.
To borrow a metaphor from one of this fine book’s several tennis scenes, John le Carre has once again served up an ace. Game. Set. Match. – David Nichols(less)

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Nov 24, 2010 Judy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 21st-century-fiction, thriller

The latest novel by John le Carre is getting positive reviews all over the place with sentiments exclaiming that the old le Carre is back and that he has dropped the preaching tone of his last few efforts. Personally, I like it when he preaches to us about the ills of our modern world.

In Our Kind of Traitor, I felt the master of spy literature was holding back just a tad and I purely hated the way this novel ended. I just felt lost through much of the story, but that could be because I do not u...more

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Nov 15, 2010 Carl rated it 2 of 5 stars

Le Carre still describes the details of spycraft, along with all of the psychological tension, with more honest detail than any "thriller" author I've encountered. He's so much more believable than the action-packed Bond style writers, but with the risk of boring the reader. And, as many have pointed out for years, after he lost the built-in enemy of the "Evil Empire," he's had to dig around for villains, which has resulted in loss of verisimilitude, as best I can tell. And, he's had to make the...more

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Laura I disagree - read his interview on Democracy Now. The money-laundering isn't fictional he states. In fact if you listen to/read DN regularly in the fi...more
Nov 26, 2010 07:52pm

Carl Well, I didn't say that sort of money-laundering doesn't exist; my comments had more to do with how well the novel worked for me, specifically the tim...more
Nov 27, 2010 11:38am

deleted user I'm with you Carl, just because there might be this kind of money laundering going on in the world doesn't mean le Carre has made an interesting story...more
Feb 21, 2011 02:51am

Oct 27, 2010 Jim Leffert rated it 4 of 5 stars

After several disappointing (unsubtle, overly moralistic) novels in recent years, le Carré is back in fine form with Our Kind of Traitor. A Russian money launderer approaches a young British couple on vacation in Antigua, and seeks their aid in convincing British authorities to rescue him from Russian mobsters. In return, he offers to reveal detailed information about prominent British figures’ collaboration with the mobsters in a plan to gain a charter to open a huge bank in Britain. With the y...more

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Oct 08, 2010 Gerald Sinstadt rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime

Perry Makepiece is deserting Oxford University to become an "ordinary" teacher. Gail Perkins is a freelance barrister starting a career. Perry inherits money from his father. Perry and Gail, having met as London University students, embark on a "once-in-a-lifetime bargain tennis holiday ion the sun." So the story begins in Antigua. To that point Le Carré's sharp prose points the way to the kind of pleasure provided by his previous explorations of the sub-world of Intelligence.

For the next fifty...more

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Sep 05, 2011 Dot rated it 4 of 5 stars

John le Carré is the acknowledged master of the spy novel and has continued to find enough subjects to write about even after the end of the cold war. In this novel, he takes on the financial industry, whose influence stretches even into the hallowed halls of MI6. Much of the novel concerns the inner struggles of "the service" and the influence of financiers even at the higher levels.

Le Carre introduces us to an assortment of interesting characters. Perry and Gail are a young professional couple...more

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Feb 24, 2013 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Although I can easily assert that this would make (another) fantastic screen adaptation, it would not do the author justice to rob him of his finely crafted sentences and agonizingly dramatic pacing. One of the best spy novels I have EVER read (and I read many) it strained my heart to want to turn every page leaving me sleep deprived and the novel finished within 24 hours. It does not contain the whirlwind action of Robert Ludlum or the the English dryness of Dick Francis or the singular charact...more

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Dec 18, 2011 Sistermagpie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 29, 2011 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had to rush to finish reading this book before our book club discussion. I started it in enough time, but it just took me so long to get through the first part of the book. It did finally pick up speed for me. I suppose the main problem is that I'm not a big reader of spy novels to begin with. However, le Carre is supposedly a master of the genre, and I did find the book to be an interesting spy novel with modern overtones. The links among the political and financial worlds and the criminal wo...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Fiona Robinson rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Having heard so much about John LeCarré and what an outstanding author he is, this, my first reading of one of this books, was a disappointment. The story was interesting and once I got into it I was hooked, wanting to find out what would happen next. But I felt little connection to the characters and didn't find anything inspiring in LeCarré's writing style. Perhaps the interview that I heard on CBC radio prior to reading it put me off, but the whole thing of wreaked of the smug, white, privile...more

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About John le Carré

John le Carré, the pseudonym of David John Moore Cornwell (born 19 October 1931 in Poole, Dorset, England), is an English author of espionage novels. Le Carré has resided in St Buryan, Cornwall, Great Britain, for more than forty years where he owns a mile of cliff close to Land's End.

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Books by John le Carré

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (George Smiley, #5)

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (George Smiley #3)

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“It struck him as a bit unfair that, at the age of eight, he should have manifested the same sense of solitude that haunted him at forty-three.” — 5 people liked it

“I've studied the disease, I've lived in the swamp. It is my informed conclusion that we are suffering, as an ex-great nation, from top-down corporate rot. And that's not just the judgement of an ailing old fart. A lot of people in my Service make a profession of not seeing things in black and white. Do not confuse me with them. I'm a late-onset, red-toothed radical with balls. Still with me?” — 3 people liked it

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