The Looking Glass War by John Le Carre (My Goodreads Review)

The Looking Glass War: A George Smiley Novel by John le Carré
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another Cold War story from John Le Carre. It takes place just after his Spy Who Came in from the Cold. It is now 1965 and there is another British Intelligence department gathering dust and virtually inactive since its heydey during the war. They are resentful of the Circus where George Smiley and Control seem to get all the action against the Communist block countries. This other obscure intelligence gathering office is simply known as The Department. They are eager to get into the tussle of the Cold War and win some results of their own. Since the Second World War, they have been cut back and lack any clear direction. Some of the senior administrators have been there since the last war and long for the good old days.

While scratching about, they uncover some information or rumours of Soviet ballistic missiles being set up in East Germany close to the West German border. They employ a foreign airline pilot to stray off course and try to obtain photographs of the area. These photos are passed on but due to an accident in Finland, the photos do not get back to The Department. Anxious to continue with this fact finding mission they get the support of a senior political minister to grant them the right to send an agent into East Germany.

They need advice from the bigger organisation (The Circus) where the notorious and polite George Smiley works. The Department wants to keep the operation strictly under their control. The Circus readily agree and offer what support is required.

So the Department set up a team under the guise of a training exercise. The head of this is Leclerc and he chooses two men from his group to supervise the mission. One is Haldane the other is called Avery.

Haldane is a well-polished man from the war days about the mid to late forties while Avery is relatively new to the Department. He is thirty-two years of age.

They recruit a Polish man who was with the Department back in the war days. He is on the books but has not been contacted since the end of the war in 1945. Twenty years later he is tracked down and asked to do the mission for the Department. The Pole has no idea that the Department is run on a shoe string budget and is kidded up that is still as big and grand as it used to be.

I particularly enjoyed the character of Haldane in this story. He starts off as a very articulate yet negative man with a dislike for most around him. When he speaks he is precise and clear yet he is negative towards his work colleagues. As though he does not have much faith in them. Despite my dislike of Haldane at first, there is a certain reliability about the man. It is not necessary to like him. However, as the story develops and the mission preparations get under way, I think every reader would come to rather like the gloomy Haldane. There is a dependability about him and an honesty.

George Smiley has appearances like in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, but his coming and going is important to the plot. If you like good old Cold War Spy stories, then I would highly recommend this splendid John Le Carre novel.

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