By John le Carre. Alfred A. Knopf. The British Ambassador is a twit. His military attache is eager to trade arms for drug money.
Universal cupidity reigns, and lechery, too.
The weather is sultry. In fact a plot is afoot, under British auspices, but obscurely so, to get the canal treaty aborted. The political terrain, which is contoured exclusively by doctrineless greed, lacks certain standard features, such as any sort of political left, the local variety having been crushed by Manuel Noriega and its remnants vaporized during Operation Sunrise in 1989. Be prepared for savage novelty. Code-named Buchan, Pendel becomes the sole source for the sort of information his local handler especially wants, as Pendel quickly understands.