This Book is a long, hard, flash-back laden slog. Along the way, le Carre offers some interesting observations about the internatial phameceutical industry and African culture. But the book never really overcomes the self-inflicted disadvantage le Carre imposed by killing off the most interesting characters before the opening scene. And the incessant flashbacks become a major annoyance that sucks the life out ouf what plot there is. Whenever things finally do get a bit interesting, we're zapped to another time and place and are left to learn what happened only in bland retrospect.Give me more present tense, more action, and more suspense. Give me Tom Clancy.