AN adaptation of le Carré s novel recently enjoyed a well-received cinema outing staring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. Hopefully this will inspire people to read the original novel because it s certainly worth the effort. Set in Kenya and with most of i

AN adaptation of le Carré's novel recently enjoyed a well-received cinema outing staring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz.

Hopefully this will inspire people to read the original novel because it's certainly worth the effort.

Set in Kenya and with most of its world-weary core characters connected to the High Commission in Nairobi, it has more than a touch of Graham Greene about it, but a healthy dollop of suspense added in.

The story surrounds the death of the enigmatic Tessa Quayle, the wife of a British diplomat who is brutally - and mysteriously - murdered.

Tessa's usually mild-mannered husband, Justin, whose only true passion appears to be his garden, takes up the case to find out the cause of her death.

Le Carré's novel manages to be intriguing and political while also creating - through the ghost of Tessa which lingers on in the Nairobi heat - a portrait of a captivating, passionate, although far from angelic, woman. Thanks to Ottakar's of Stevenage. 4/5