Slow. Even by Le Carre's standards. It's a standalone thriller disconnected from his Smiley series, revolving around the UK diplomatic community in Bonn at the time of the Brussels treaty and the foundation of the Common Market.

Leo Hartfield has gone missing from the Embassy in Bonn a 'temporary' he had been there 20 years and appears to have had access to a lot of files in that time. The rough mannered yorkshireman John Turner is brought in from Intelligence to find out how, why, when and whether the Russians were involved. Oh and if he could recover a certain Green File without reading the contents - with or without Leo.

Very very slow dialog drivin plotting describes Turner's various meetings with the key characters in the embassy - all of whom dislike him on sight and are reluctant to share any infromation with him. In addition There is a political crisis going on as Germany may be pulling out of the Common Market and establishing a trade Axis with Russia instead.

The ending is extremely sudden. An average exploration of the political scene in 60s germany, it is not one of Le Carre's best works, though it all comes together quite nicely in the end. ( )

A Small Town in Germany gets it title from somewhere that really isn't. In this case, Le Carre means Bonn, the capital of West Germany in this era.

A British government official journeys to said 'small town' to look into the disappearance of another official, and also perhaps the 'misplacing' of some important secret documents.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/03... ( )