Call for the Dead

Call for the Dead by John le Carré
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Yes, this may have been my third time reading this book. And it's not even le Carre's best work. But this time I focused on Smiley and realized that I'd been duped all along. Far from being a grandfatherly type, clever, lovable, and somehow being England's conscious, Smiley is simply a spy. Old and good--able to read the signs better than most, but also lonely, sad, given to fits of nostalgia and old anger. This novel ends with self-recrimination and regret and reading these novels in a row, there is a pervasive sadness.


This is Le Carre's first book, where we are introduced to George Smiley and Peter Guillium. Smiley is called to investigate a murder, and it is a decent murder mystery. It feels like Agatha Christie wrote a spy novel, but it is a good place to start with George. Unlike some of his later novels, Carre spells out the evidence and conclusions (almost painfully) so that the reader doesn't miss a thing. It was an enjoyable read and a good beginning for things to come.

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