Keep Calm and le Carré On

Soon, soon, I will write up a review of M. J. McGrath's White Heat, a different (for me) and terrifically engaging direction in crime fiction.

But in the meantime, John le Carré obviously has an awesome agent. With a new book coming out just in time for my birthday, he's popping up in all the correct places.  You can read a splendid interview with him here, and a kind of sad but totally charming article by him here (subscription required).  

Le Carré is in a class by himself.  But I was almost as taken with this interview of Philip Kerr, whose Bernie Gunther series I also quite like.  Kerr says to write about what you don't know.  Le Carré is pretty much writing about what he does know, although he's not now a practicing spy (so he SAYS).  Both work, but JLC's bleak patriotism and British-ly taut command of language always gets me in the end.