Agent Running in the Field - John LeCarré

Another great book by this author.  The contemporary issues underlying this current book are both very topical and demonstrate more perception than current media or public awareness.
1 - how the English elite, and particularly the London financial system, has turned into an enabler for, and profits hugely from, vast sums of money coming out of criminal regimes and being parked for security in London banks and property.  Particularly from Eastern Europe.  Le Carré's point is that this lucrative relationship has started to colour and control England's diplomatic and international agenda.

2 - the possibility of a U.S. England alliance designed to destabilize and ultimately destroy the E.U. as an institution through fake news, provocations, support for far right groups.  This idea is highly plausible.  Brexiteers see the E.U. as a threat to their agenda.  Trump and the American Right see the E.U. as an economic and political threat in an arena where for the past fifty years they have controlled the playing field.  The Anglo socio-political world view - every man for themselves, wealth as a legitimizer of power - stands in opposition to the E.U.'s more socialist leanings.  Just as the West once stood as a stark contrast to the ugliness of the Soviet regime, Europe's more humane and inclusive politics stand in stark contrast to the growing social ugliness of the Anglo political world.  In a sense, the U.S. and England are now on the same side as Putin in relation to the E.U.   Another interesting little aside in the novel is the author's comment that Trump says the things about the E.U. that Putin can't say as he attempts to weasel his way deeper into the economics and politics of the region.

This is LeCarré's most disturbing book so far, from the point of view of issues he examines.  I suppose because the central conflict is entirely located within what would have formerly been seen as the Free World.  It suggests that, rather than having disappeared with the fall of the Soviet Union, the rot has in fact spread into Europe and the U.S..