The constant gardener - John Le Carr

Tessa Quayle has been horribly murdered on the shores of Lake Turkana in Northern Kenya, the birthplace of mankind. Her putative African lover, a doctor with one of the aid agencies, has disappeared.

Her husband, Justin, a career diplomat and amateur gardener at the British High Commission in Nairobi, sets out on a personal odyssey in pursuit of the killers and their motive. His quest takes him to the Foreign Office in London, across Europe and Canada and back to Africa, to the depths of South Sudan, and finally to the very spot where Tessa died.

On his way Justin meets terror, violence, laughter, conspiracy and knowledge. But his greatest discovery is the woman he barely had time to love.

John le Carr was born in 1931. His third novel, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, secured him a wide reputation which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY and SMILEY'S PEOPLE. His other novels include THE CONSTANT GARDENER, A MOST WANTED MAN and OUR KIND OF TRAITOR.

Smart, provocative . . . a genuinely tense political thriller

A powerful, moving novel ... essential reading
Sunday Telegraph

Nobody writing today manipulates suspense better. Nobody constructs a more tantalisingly complex plot... essential reading
Chris Woodhead, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Nobody writing today manipulates suspense better . . . Essential reading
Chris Woodhead,Sunday Telegraph

The master storyteller...has lost none of his cunning
A. N. Wilson, DAILY MAIL

The book breathes life, anger and excitement
Nigel Williams, OBSERVER

A cracking thriller
ECONOMIST