Nick Harkaway for The Taper Man

On a cold night in November, NICK HARKAWAY joins us for his next instalment with George Smiley in _The Taper Man._It is 1965, and the Cold War has never been colder.

The Circus - the secret centre of British intelligence - has one prize asset left in Moscow: a senior Red Army officer with access to the enemy's deepest secrets.

But when a British agent is shot in Helsinki, George Smiley uncovers a Soviet operation that imperils this irreplaceable source.The trail leads Smiley not to Berlin or Vienna, but Los Angeles - the most foreign place he has ever known.

There, in the murky heart of US intelligence, a Communist sleeper agent - a 'Taper Man' - is poised to expose Britain's operative in Moscow.

To save him, Smiley must navigate an America riven with political tension, all while his spy in Leningrad, Roy Bland, risks everything in pursuit of a Russian defector who holds the final piece of the puzzle._'Smiley is back at the Circus in the safest of hands'-_ RICHARD OSMAN_'Smiley is back with a vengeance!'_ - SIR IAN RANKINNICK HARKAWAY is the acclaimed author of _Gnomon, The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman, Titanium Noir_ and _Karla's Choice_.