Night Manager [Paperback]

John Le Carre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 20, 2000

In the shadowy recesses of Whitehall and Washington an unholy alliance operates between the intelligence community and the secret arms trade. Jonathan Pine is ready to stand up and be counted in the fight against this ultimate heart of darkness. His mission takes him from the cliffs of west Cornwall, via northern Quebec and the Caribbean, to the jungles of post-Noriega Panama. His quarry is the worst man in the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Le Carr‚ returns to the same subject as his disappointingly episodic The Secret Pilgrim--the fate of espionage in the new world order--but now looks forward instead of backward, showing a not-quite innocent mangled between that new order and the old one, whose course le Carr‚ has so peerlessly chronicled for 30 years. Jonathan Pine, night manager at a Cairo hotel, helps Arab playboy Freddie Hamid's mistress Madame Sophie photocopy papers linking him to arms mogul Richard Roper and, while he's at it, makes an extra copy to send to a friend in the Secret Service--only to find that the leak has gotten back to Freddie and that Jonathan's belated, guilty devotion to Sophie can't protect her from a fatal beating. Six months later, Jonathan, now working in Geneva, meets Roper in person and, vowing revenge, volunteers for Leonard Burr's fledgling government agency as the inside man who can supply actionable details of Roper's next arms- for-drugs deal. With the help of Whitehall mandarin Rex Goodhew, Burr sets up a plausibly shady dossier for Jonathan and stages the kidnapping of Roper's son so that Jonathan can foil the snatch and get invited aboard Roper's yacht. But even as Jonathan, still grieving for Sophie, finds himself attracted to Roper's bedmate Jed Marshall and overriding Burr's orders to stay out of Roper's papers, the boys in Whitehall--divided between independents like Goodhew, who want the old agencies broken up, and his cold-warrior nemesis Geoffrey Darker, who insists on maintaining centralized authority--are squabbling over control of the mission, with dire results for Jonathan, whose most dangerous enemies turn out to be his well-meaning masters back home. Despite the familiarity of the story's outlines, le Carr‚ shows his customary mastery in the details--from Jonathan's self-lacerating momentum to the intricacies of interagency turf wars--and reveals once again why nobody writes espionage fiction with his kind of authority. (First printing of 450,000; Book-of-the-Month Dual Selection for August) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“A brilliant performance.”
–The New York Times Book Review

“Wonderful . . . beautifully done . . . compelling.”
–The Wall Street Journal

“A beautifully polished, utterly knowing, and palpitating book.”
–Time

“Intrigue of the highest order.”
–Chicago Sun-Times


From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Sceptre (January 20, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340766522
• ISBN-13: 978-0340766521
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,209,174 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John le Carre was born in 1931. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy: Tinke, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honorable Schoolboy, and Smiley's People. His novels include The Little Drummer Girl, A Perfect Spy, The Russia House, Our Game, The Taileor of Panama, and Single & Single. John le Carre lives in Cornwall.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars John le Carre on the upward swing, September 25, 2001

By 

W. Weinstein "William Weinstein" (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Night Manager (Mass Market Paperback)

Mr le Carre seems to blow hot and cold, one good book, one pot boiler. The Night Manager definitely falls into the former category. Jonathan Pine is the manager of a hotel in Switzerland, formal, correct, impeccable. But, like all le Carre's characters his placid exterior hides a multitude of depths. His mission is to bring down the "worst man in the world." Roper, the millionaire, gun runner, invulnerable friend of government ministers, philanthropist, doting father. Pine must infiltrate, seduce, outwit and destroy the empire that Roper has built. The tension is maintained perfectly and the everyday manner in which the characters go about their deadly business makes the book all the more riveting. If the final denouement is slightly disappointing, as if perhaps the author found himself in a cul de sac with no way out, overall, the story holds together wonderfully. And let's face it, at least he didn't finish with, "And then Jonathan woke up."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pine's quest, July 10, 2007

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Night Manager: New York Times bestseller (Mass Market Paperback)

Jonathan Pine, sometime hotelier, soldier, killer, lover and agent, is swept up in a complex international intrigue. Weapons for sale is the pivot around which money, power and even romance impinge on Jonathan's life. The many roles, varied and useful as they are, leave him with no particular purpose in life. Until he encounters "the worst man in the world". The prompt is Sophie, who might have been a lover, but who belongs to Freddie Hamid. Freddie is aligned with Richard Onslow Roper, of Nassau, the Bahamas. The name and location are almost a slap in the face, since the Caribbean island-nations are host to shady firms. Little or no taxes and even less government supervision make it possible for the unscrupulous to engage in many forms of chicanery. Drugs and weapons loom large in that realm.

Left at loose ends by the fall of the Soviet Union, British Intelligence services need a fresh cause. If nothing else, all those bureaucratic structures and their personnel need to turn their expertise to new tasks. The problem is that the Cold War enabled influential people to develop links through the various spy networks. How many wealthy aristocrats are now involved in picking up the pieces to further enrich themselves? And which ones are doing so? Pine, picked up by one of the new spin-off intelligence organisations is set to learn answers to these questions. A faked murder sends him to unreachable places with a new identity. It puts him in a position to penetrate the Roper organisation. Throughout this tale, Pine is driven by the ghost of Sophie, who was found beaten to death in Egypt. Even in the backwoods of Quebec, hiding from authorities and maneuvering to complete his mission, he is beset by the image of her in his mind.

LeCarre's style is well applied in this tale of international wheeling and dealing. He exhibits a well-versed familiarity with the places described. It's his characters, however, that give this story its richness. From the intelligence bureaucrats through the "heavies" Roper employs as his protectors and fronts, to Pine and the women his life touches, there are no false images conveyed. The author portrays them effectively and consistently with no distracting or invalid diversions. Which is not to imply any of them are shallow or above credibility. Although the conclusion is unexpected, especially given the circumstances, the "spy novel" author has brought a new facet to intelligence writing. It's a captivating book and well worth either the established LeCarre fan or someone taking him up for the first time to have in their collection. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The real thing, September 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Night Manager (Paperback)

This is eerily familiar to anyone who knows the businesses of private banking, international arms dealing and covert export licensing by governments. Originally recommended to me by a senior security source in an international bank, this was one of those rare and riveting occasions when a fictional account of a subject grew more and more recognisable on closer reading. A military intelligence researcher recently confirmed this view, telling me that "if this had been written as a textbook, Her Majesty's Government would have tried to ban it". For each fictional character there is a real counterpart out there; certainly for anyone who knows anything about the real post-Cold War agenda for western governments there is some jarringly accurate analysis of motive, mechanism and personality politics. Whether you read this as simply a thunderingly good story to rank with Le Carre's best, or as a "roman a clef" which reveals the real personalities behind British political administration, it is un-put-downable. (Fun game for parties of international bankers/arms dealers: How many real-world characters can you identify?) I now issue this as a textbook to employees embarking on careers in banking, as a morality tale about the perils of money laundering. Others should simply enjoy, and wonder how much is true!