West Germany, a simmering cauldron of radical protests, has produced a new danger to Britain: Karfeld, menacing leader of the opposition. At the same time Leo Harting, a Second Secretary in the British Embassy, has gone missing - along with more than forty Confidential embassy files. Alan Turner of the Foreign Office must travel to Bonn to recover them, facing riots, Nazi secrets and the delicate machinations of an unstable Europe in the throes of the Cold War. As Turner gets closer to the truth of Harting's disappearance, he will discover that the face of International relations - and the attentions of the British Ministry itself - is uglier that he could possibly have imagined.

约翰．勒卡雷（John Le Carre）原名大卫•康威尔,1931年生于英国。十八岁,便被英国军方情报单位招募,担任对东柏林的间谍工作；退役后在牛津大学攻读现代语言,之后于伊顿公学教授法文与德文。

1959年,他进入英国外交部工作,先后于英国驻波昂及汉堡的大使馆服务,同时开始写作。1963年,以第3本著作《冷战谍魂》一举成名,被知名小说家葛林盛赞说：“这是我读过最好的间谍小说”,从此奠定其文坛大师地位,之后陆续出版的著作都备受欢迎,全球各大媒体都持续对勒卡雷及其作品做广泛的报导。

勒卡雷一生得奖无数,包括1965年美国推理作家协会的爱伦坡大奖,1964年获得毛姆奖、英国Somerset Maugham奖、James Tait BTack纪念奖等,1988年获CWA终身成就奖（另外分别在1963年与1977年获金匕首奖）,以及意大利Malaparte Prize等等。至今已出版的19部作品,不仅受到全球各大媒体的瞩目与读者的欢迎,因作品充满戏剧元素与张力,已有11部被改编为电影或电视剧。