As usual a very good read

I enjoyed reading this due to the emotional side of the characters … why more words

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1 person found this helpful

Superb performance

Well drawn characters in an expertly crafted plot. So beautifully performed. What an incredible combination of master storytellers.

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Brilliant political thriller.

Le Carre on top form - an angry and vivid portrayal of British collusion, high and low, in a Panamanian revolution. Brilliantly read by Michael Jayston - the perfect interpreter of Le Carre's moral fury.

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7 people found this helpful

Great start but got bored in the middle

Great start to a book but Le Carré's detailed explanations really don't translate well to audio book. It felt really slow and I just plain got bored in the middle and stopped listening.

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6 people found this helpful

Masterful thread pulling.

I really enjoyed this - and will certainly dig out more Le Carre. The character of Harry Pendle is especially well drawn and fleshed out. It certainly has its roots in Greene’s spy fiction without being so cloak and dagger / Bond-ified. Pendle’s end is truly fitting, although he is trapped in circumstances and stitched up regardless. Seeing these threads bought together is masterful. Jayston does a fantastic job as narrator and I look forward to listening to him more.

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4 people found this helpful

Depressing to a degree

Well-written and beautifully told, but crushingly dismal and in places horrifying. The trouble is, as usual LeC makes his main character likeable. All the more awful to witness his gallant self-destructiveness in

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Main characters. Story lacking credibility.

Not one of his best. Too many of the characters were somewhat one-dimensional, particularly UK diplomats, government officials and senior spies which stretched the story’s credibility. In contrast Pendel and Osnard are well portrayed which meant the story had promise, albeit a promise not fulfilled.

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not my favourite

I had difficulty with this book as I struggled to emphatise with the main character, which is a first for me as I have read/listened to the majority of the authors work....
the production/narration was flawless, but for me, for once, the story was not one I could really get into...

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4 people found this helpful

Hard work

I listened to this book on the beach and found it hard going. Brilliantly written as a book but failed for me as an audible book.

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Conspiracy with a capital ‘Con’

‘The Tailor of Panama’ is a multi-layered conspiracy story set in the post-Cold War, post-Noriega milieu of Panama. Its two central characters are Harry Pendel, the tailor of the title, and a British spy named Andrew Osnard. Between the two of them, they seek to maintain Britain’s foreign policy interests in the Panama Canal. But as the story unfolds, you find yourself asking, “Who’s conning whom?”

The story is intriguing and interesting, with more than a dash of le Carré’s characteristic cynicism about the West.

Michael Jayston’s narration is, as ever, excellent. Once again he exercises his ability to handle all sorts of global accents, and generally narrates with real feeling. There were just two slightly annoying imperfections in the narration. In chapter 7, for some reason there intrudes at one point what sounds like some analogue radio interference (at 4º07’42” into the audiobook), which renders a couple of words unintelligible. And then in chapter 8, at one point Jayston’s voice suddenly becomes much louder mid-word (at 4º17’04”). I think the word is ‘voice,’ aptly enough.

But otherwise, a fine and interesting story, excellently narrated.

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