The Gordian Knot by Bernhard Schlink

A big fan of The Reader and the brilliant Flights of Love, I hadn’t realized Schlink wrote thrillers. This is so different from the usual American/English thriller genre though. It’s sparse, unadorned prose, all narrative really, with difficult and fairly unlikeable main characters. The protagonist, Georg, is finely drawn but utterly colourless. I also had problems with the story, which focuses very much on what Georg is imagining is happening and is somehow quite messy and angst ridden. He’s engaged as a translator to copy documents for a readily identifiable crook, and then the whole thing goes pear shaped as his Mata Hari, Francoise, disappears and he tries to track her down in America. The resolution, when it comes, is pretty silly. I found this book flat - it just doesn’t work, which is a shame when it comes from such a fine writer.