DRAWN BLANC

Blanc, a Czech about to be repatriated, willingly accepts a chance to work for the British Foreign Office where, since Philby's defection, all information is to be obtained in small pieces. Blanc finds his superior brutal and cannot condone what happens (the death of a girl) before, toward the end, they learn that the system, triggering as it does a whole chain of assassinations, is even more casualty-prone than before. Intentionally depersonalized, thin-blooded and chilling -- yet another legacy from Le Carre.