A Most Wanted Man, by John Le Carre

It's been a long long time since I read any Le Carre, since he was writing spy novels set in the Cold War, if that tells you anything. This new novel is actually set in a post 9/11 world, and is relatively topical.
A fugitive Chechen arrives in Hamburg, Germany and is immediately the target of the security services investigation. He may or may not be an actual terrorist, but it is certain that he was charged with terrorism back in Russia, and spent time in jail in several countries. He bears the marks, physical and mental, of torture.
A social services lawyer, Anna Richter, becomes involved in helping this man, Issa. It appears he is heir to a rather mysterious fortune, amassed in the bank belonging to a Scottish ex-pat, Tommy Brues, by Issa's biological father, a Russian gangster named Karpov.
So it seems we have the basis for a really intriguing and exciting tale. Unfortunately, after about the first hundred pages, it just sort of meanders to a rather unsatisfactory and mild conclusion. It lacks action, adventure, and resolution. Sorry, folks, don't bother with this one.