From the New York Times bestselling author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Our Kind of Traitor; and The Night Manager, now a television series starring Tom Hiddleston. John le Carré’s new novel, A Legacy of Spies, is now available.Tell Max that it concerns the Sandman… but it could have been the Chief of the Circus himself. No one at the British Secret Service considers the old spy to be anything except a senile has-been who can’t give up the game—until he’s shot in the face at point-blank range. Although George Smiley (code name: Max) is officially retired, he’s summoned to identify the body now bearing Moscow Centre’s bloody imprimatur. As he works to unearth his friend’s fatal secrets, Smiley heads inexorably toward one final reckoning with Karla—his dark “grail.”
In Smiley’s People, master storyteller and New York Times bestselling author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Our Kind of Traitor John le Carré brings his acclaimed Karla Trilogy, to its unforgettable, spellbinding conclusion.
With an introduction by the author.
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Classic
Another great le Carre look at cold war undercover operations.
LeCarre combines espionage plots with wonderful literary writing
LeCarre’s Smiley is a superb character. Best ever Author.
Really well written in every way: character development, mis en scene, plot, historical references…..makes all my other recent books pale in comparison.
Enjoyed reading it. Tragic,in a way, but also realistic and inspiring
It’s John LeCarre and it’s the best spy fiction ever written.
For a spy thriller, the storyline’s attraction is rooted as much in philosophical dilemmas and personal demons as it is in nail-biting physical action. The descriptive scenes also provide an almost visual travelogue of foreign locales, and predictability is almost completely missing from the pages. It speaks in a voice from a different time and culture without being obscure. Really good read!
Best of the best spy series ever written
George Smiley is relentless in his pursuit of the killers of Vladimir, an old Russian emigre General. Twisted paths with brutal, shady characters. Simply a masterpiece of the espionage genre.
Had size and complexity.
Great book! super Great
Intrege and mystery at its finest. Since this is written by a former agent of the Queen’s intelligence service the originality and realism is striking. The beginning is a little slow but the pace picks up and you’re trapped reading it into the wee hours of the morning. So suggest you start this on a Friday night.
Cheers
mrb
All the Smiley novels are excellent.
Rich in language and emotional subtlety. The characters painted in detail all serve as foils for Smiley’s plan. Stands the test of multiple rereadings.
All the Smiley books are truly fascinating.
Great sequel to Tinker Tailor
I’ve read a couple of hundred spy novels, and this is my all-time favorite. Maybe it’s because of the build-up from the predecessors, “Tinker, Tailor” and, to a lesser extent, “The Honourable Schoolboy” but actually it’s because le Carre is at the top of his game. He masterfully introduces the bit players via other bit players one instrument at a time until the orchestra is roaring away.
By this late date, George Smiley (operating as “Max”) and Alec Guinness were interchangeable in both le Carre’s and my minds, which made it very easy to understand motive and extrapolate beyond the words on the page. Meanwhile, le Carre’s command of detail unpaints every decrepit waterfront warehouse, loosens the planks on treacherous docks and leads us inexorably to a scene of death and redemption. And he repeats this trick scene after scene until the inevitable climax in Berlin.
I recently bought the BBC’s mini-series. If it is even half as good as this book, it will make for six hours of fascinating viewing. (The series turned out to be good!)
This is not an easy read, it requires the reader to read carefully to follow the characters and their code names. The reader will feel the humanity of the characters. It is not an action packed gimmick filled spy thriller, but rather a more realistic tale of spies during the cold war era. This is the first in a series, and I recommend that you read all three.
I always feel smarter after reading a LeCarre novel.
Sure. I learn something about the spy word each book.
But its the prose. The wordplay. My goodness, I love it.