None of the coolness or suaveness of the other Smiley books, dripping with borderline hatred. Some of Le Carré’s best writing appears between scenes as he weaves a tapestry of hubris, ineptitude and utter failure.
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Hugh rated Gun, with occasional music: 4 stars
Gun, with occasional music by Jonathan Lethem
Gun, with Occasional Music is a 1994 novel by American writer Jonathan Lethem that blends science fiction and hardboiled detective …
Hugh reviewed The Looking Glass War by John le Carré
The Looking Glass War is a 1965 spy novel by John le Carré. Written in …
Review of 'The Looking Glass War' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Hugh rated Mark Rothko: 4 stars
Casino by Nicholas Pileggi (A Pocket Star book)
Hugh rated Caliban's War: 5 stars
Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse, #2)
We are not alone.
On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered …
Hugh rated We Are Bellingcat: 3 stars
Hugh rated Warez: The Infrastructure and Aesthetics of Piracy: 5 stars
Hugh rated A Red Death: 4 stars
A Red Death by Walter Mosley (Easy Rawlins (2))
It's 1953 in Red-baiting, blacklisting Los Angeles, a moral tar pit ready to swallow Easy Rawlins. Easy is out of …
Hugh rated Beyond the pale: 3 stars
Hugh reviewed March violets by Philip Kerr
March Violets is a historical detective novel and the first written by Philip Kerr featuring …
Review of 'March violets' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Alternatingly syrupy noir and coldly brutal thriller. Starts off boozy and quippy, out Hammetting Hammett at points, but the fun definitively stops in the last third. The tonal shift doesn’t feel out of place but it recontextualises the first half quite well within the evils and nihilism of fascism.
One major difference to almost all hard boiled novels is that the city itself is not a character as in other authors’ work (Chandler and Hammett particularly) - it is an enemy. The city is riven with betrayal and nothing is genuine.
