Early on in John Le Carre’s “Agent Running in the Field,” the central character, Nat, says to his 19-year-old daughter, “Steff, there’s something about me your mother and I feel it’s time you knew.”

“‘I’m illegitimate,’ she says eagerly.”

“No, but I’m a spy.”

To the reader of a Le Carre novel, that revelation should come as no surprise. Nat, who points out that “in the England I have recently returned to, nobody has a surname,” is, more specifically, an agent runner, or handler — a case officer who manages agent operations but may also be responsible for recruiting, instructing, debriefing and/​or advising younger agents. He has been a member of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service for the past 25 years. His wife, Prue, once a spy herself, now works for a prestigious law firm where her current occupation (and obsession) is trying to defeat Big Pharma in the courts of law.

Nat, 47 and recently returned from Tallinn, Estonia, is relaxing at the Athleticus Club in Battersea, indulging himself in the sport that is his passion, badminton. Nat has just won an important match against a rival club in Chelsea. He is Athleticus’ newly crowned champion when a handsome polite 20-something named Ed comes to him and challenges Nat to a game of their own. Nat accepts, although he pushes the date down the road a few weeks.

The newbie turns out to be a formidable opponent on the court, winning more games than Nat. He’s also a formidable intellectual opponent, expounding liberal, at times socialist, philosophy when the two enjoy a few after-game pints at the local pub. It’s custom at the Athleticus for the loser to treat, and a regular Stammtisch (as Nat says his German mother would have called their accustomed table) becomes a ritual between the two rival players. The sport quickly becomes intermixed with politics and with spying, of course. Nat, returned from the field, has been passing himself off as a mild-mannered businessman. But then, Ed claims to be working at a dead end job for a public relations firm — which may or may not be equally untrue. Every Le Carre novel is jam packed with surprises, and no one is who you think they are on first meeting.

The author is a master at introducing a character in a few vivid sentences that tell all: Ed “steps forward [with] two big, ungainly steps, left foot, right foot, halt. … Six foot three at least, hair dark and tousled, large brown studious eyes given ethereal status by spectacles. … Age around 25, but with those eternal-student features could easily be less or more.”

Nat, who narrates the story in first person, is even more colorful describing himself: “I possess a rugged charm and the accessible personality of a man of the world. I am in appearance and manner a British archetype, capable of fluent and persuasive argument in the short term. I adapt to circumstance and have no insuperable moral scruples. … I can be headstrong and do not respond naturally to discipline [but] I have a light touch and a welcoming nature that invites trust.”

When Nat reluctantly takes over a defunct substation known as The Haven, he inherits as his assistant the feisty young Florence, who is working on a project to unseat a Ukrainian oligarch. Her zeal for Russia and Ukraine upsets the higher-ups, and at a badminton match in which Nat brings her along to play doubles with Ed and his sister, Florence turns on Nat and precipitously quits the force. She’s not gone for long, though. Nat persists in tracking her down, while Ed pursues her for what seems to be a first-sight romantic entanglement.

Or, might Ed just happen to be working for Intelligence and using Florence for his own nefarious purposes? If so, whose side is Ed actually on? You won’t know until the end, of course. Mr. Le Carre is a great one for keeping the reader guessing, and he’s also willing to let his hero take actions that might seem out of character with what we know of him thus far. Nothing is off-limits in a plot that tricks and fools the reader at just about every twist and turn.

Robert Croan is a Post-Gazette senior editor.

First Published: October 20, 2019, 2:00 p.m.