原著里男主认为自己背叛了Sophie，而不仅仅是没保护好她。开始他对她撒谎了说没有把文件泄露给任何人。后来他渐渐体会到了这个女子的为人和内心其实很有大义，所以随着对她的了解增多，他对她的愧疚感也在加深。书中描写的很合理。下面是他的独白。
I loved you, thought Jonathan uselessly. Meet your past-tense lover.
I loved you but betrayed you instead, to a pompous British spy I didn’t even like.
Because I was on his little list of people who would always do their bit when the bugle went.
Because I was One of Us—Us being Englishmen of self-evident loyalty and discretion. Us being Good Chaps.
I loved you but never quite got around to saying so at the time.”
接下来一段算对Sophie的人物刻画。
“This is where I brought him,” she says. One side of her mouth is ridiculously swollen. She speaks through a hole in the other side.
“Why?” says Jonathan, meaning: Why are you now bringing me? “
‘Look at these people, Freddie,’ I told him. ‘Each time someone sells weapons to another tin-pot Arab tyrant, these people starve a little more. Do you know the reason? Listen to me, Freddie. Because it is”
“more fun to have a pretty army than to feed the starving. You are an Arab, Freddie. Never mind that we Egyptians say we are not Arabs. We are Arabs. Is it right that your Arab brothers should be the flesh to pay for your dreams?’”
“I see,” says Jonathan, with the embarrassment of an Englishman when faced with political emotion.
“‘We do not need leaders,’ I said. ‘The next great Arab will be a humble craftsman. He will make things work and give the people dignity instead of war. He will be an administrator, not a warrior. He will be like you, Freddie, as you could be if you grew up.’”
“What did Freddie say?” says Jonathan. Her smashed features ac”
“accuse him every time he looks at them. The bruises round her eyes are turning to blue and yellow.
“He told me to mind my own business.” He catches the choke of fury in her voice, and his heart sinks further. “I told him it was my business! Life and death are my business! Arabs are my business! He was my business!”
And you warned him, he thinks, sickened. You let him know you were a force to be reckoned with, not a weak woman to be discarded at his whim. You let him guess that you too had your secret weapon, and you threatened to do what I did, without knowing I’d done it already.
还有一段Sophie对Roper的看法：
“Roper is the worst man in the world,” she announces.
Jonathan’s experience of the world’s villains is limited. His instinct is to blame himself first and others afterwards.
“I guess anyone in his business is pretty frightful,” he says.
“He has no excuse,” she retorts, unappeased by his moderation.
“He is healthy. He is white. He is rich. He is wellborn, well educated. He has grace.” Roper’s enormity grows as she contemplates his virtues. “He is at ease with the world. He is amusing. Confident. Yet he destroys it. What is missing in him?” She waits for him to say something, but in vain. “How does he come to be like this? He was not dragged up in the back streets. He is blessed. You are a man. Perhaps you know.”
总之看剧的时候觉得Sophie是自己作死的，看完原著改变了对她的看法，一个风尘女子却这样有自己的原则。男主内心不仅有愧疚感也有羞愧感。因为他匿名举报其实也没有多高尚的动机。习惯使然。很可惜电视剧没拍出来这些细节。
最后剧透一下下如果电视剧按原著走的话最后男主和Jed都没死，貌似隐姓埋名一起生活了。