Book Log 2020 #20: Agent Running in the Field by John Le Carre

A veteran intelligence agent who has been more or less put out to pasture (a spiritual cousin of Slow Horses' Jackson Lamb) finds himself playing weekly badminton games with a younger opponent, whose post-match topic of conversation often lands upon Brexit, Trump, and his loathing of both. Our veteran agent mostly agrees with him, but mostly provides a sympathetic ear.

But then it turns out that the opponent may also be involved in giving secrets to the Russians, and the veteran agent suddenly finds himself both working to discover more about this betrayal while also proving to the higher ups that he's not involved. 

This was billed as le Carre's Brexit novel, and it's clear that le Carre was no fan. But he also used Brexit (and his distaste for politicians like Trump and Boris Johnson) to great effect. That in itself is no small feat, given that le Carre is 88 years old and could very easily have stuck to churning out novels that don't reflect, never mind address, current events.

It's not a perfect novel - there's some criticism over secondary characters and the ending - but it's still very much worth reading.