I think this is the first John le Carré novel I have read; ironically it was his last and published posthumously by his youngest son, Nick Cornwell, who writes as Nick Harkaway. I was looking for a single word to summarise my feeling about the book and I think I found it in Dan Stewart's review of last October - muted. ...frustratingly, Silverview also feels unfinished - not in its narrative, but in the bits in between major plot points. Le Carré's keen observational style and grasp of psychological depth seems muted here. Characters and locations feel only sketched out; the central character of Julian, the bookseller, is especially thinly drawn. The motive for the act of betrayal at the book's centre is never explained by the character responsible for it and only guessed at by others. Once you've completed the puzzle, it somehow feels as if some pieces are still missing. I couldn't put it better myself. Even though it is the only book of the author's I have read, I, too, felt it was almost going through formulaic motions - a serviceable but unambitious thriller. I particularly liked Stewart's summing up: Silverview, then, is more a drinkable blended whisky than the vintage malt.
Silverview gained generally favourable reviews from literary critics. However, The New York Times noted that it finished abruptly and felt incomplete; whilst Time also commented on its feeling unfinished. It also suggested that le Carré's 2017 novel, A Legacy of Spies, was a more fitting swansong for his career.
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