The voice [Hoffmann’s] that emerges is one of a man struggling with the enduring issue that surfaces and resurfaces throughout espionage fiction, from Graham Greene to John le Carré and Alan Furst: loyalty to country versus loyalty to the individual… This is a quiet, largely introspective spy novel, very different in mood from Downing’s adventure-fueled Jack McColl novels, but it packs an equal if not greater emotional wallop.