A Delicate Truth is the latest novel by John Le Carré serialised in episodes on Radio 4 and where the story is based on an incident in Gibraltar, the British land where both my parents were born. By coincidence I am writing this as Channel begin a series about the residents and visitors to Gibraltar and about which I shall comment when the hour long first episode ends.
The story of A Delicate Truth like the Bourne Films is about the web we weave what we attempt to deceive about a bad mistake, and i similar to the Bourne Films the bad mistake is a Black Ops. A government Minister by passes the required rules and regs which I have referred to earlier and uses a private security firm to apprehend a sought after Terrorist suspect where intelligence has indicated they are visiting the Rock. The plan is for a USA Seal team to come offshore and rendition the suspect. What happened is that the intelligence is false and the team fire on and kill a woman and her child who panics when being approached because she is an illegal immigrant.
The story is told by civil servant with a security services contact who under the impression he is doing the right thing bugs the Minister’s office when he is having an unofficial meeting with the man from the Security firm involved and an operative heading the British mercenaries.
When he attempts to take action and mentions his concerns to his security service contact he is warned that he was mistaken and not to repeat the allegations to anyone else. His home searched ad the recording disappears but he took the precaution to make copies.
Years pass and another civil servant involved with the Minister and the covering up of the project based on inaccurate information provided him has retired to a country village in Cornwall where John Le Carré has live since his own retirement. He attends a country fare and there comes across one of the men he met at the Minister’s office who is on hard times and makes comments and then leave a note in the handbag purchased by the wife of the former civil servants referring to the deaths of woman and her daughter. Supported by his wife the civil servant makes enquires and is eventually warned off. However by then he has brought back the story teller with the copy of the recording. The daughter of the former civil servants and his wife becomes involved, protective of her father although her role and notices are not clear at first. The man who sells the handbag is murdered but another witness, member of the team is able to complete the picture which the story teller had suspected. He too is warned about his future.
The book ends as he elects to reveal all via an Internet cafe as the sound of police sirens is heard, The BBC radio abridgment ends, as I assume the book, without indicating the actual ending, but the assumption is that he man is prosecuted and imprisoned. Whether the media is able to establish the story with an impact on those direct involved bearing in mind that it was not a government sanction operation is left to the reader/listener to decide.
