Single & Single by John le Carre (My Goodreads Review)

Single & Single by John le Carré

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another very exciting read from John le Carre. I read all the Cold War stories and was apprehensive about the post Smiley era tales. This along with 'A Delicate Truth' means my reluctance was unjustified. From the first page, I was hooked. In this story, an entrepreneurial businessman named Tiger Single leads his company on a big business venture with the new Eastern European nations from the post-Soviet Union era. Opportunities from Georgia. The seasoned British businessmen of Single and Single's various enterprises think everything will be a walk in the park. It all turns out to be a little bit more demanding than a park stroll. Dynamic story and I recommend it to any espionage/thriller fan.

View all my reviews

A Small Town in Germany by John le Carré (My Goodreads Review)

A Small Town in Germany: A Novel by John le Carré

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Leo Harting in a low-grade admin worker at the British Embassy in Bonn, West Germany. It is about 1968 and there is political turmoil in Germany and also for Britain. Britain is trying to win favour with the German Federal Government with its application for Common Market membership. (Boy how the worm has turned in this day and age.) Leo has gone missing. So have a batch of top secret documents. One of them labelled green. Evidently, a green file is highly sensitive.

Back in the UK, a Foreign Office worker named Alan Turner is sent to find Leo Harding and, most important, try to collect the missing documents. Alan Turner is not liked by most who work around him. He is a Yorkshireman who can be abrupt and direct. He has no graces and does not fit well among diplomats. But then it is not necessary to like Turner. So long as he can get a job done. That's the Foreign Office point of view. The diplomats of the British Embassy in Bonn have a very different outlook. Another fine story from the master. If you like John Le Carre stories; you'll enjoy this gripping mystery.

View all my reviews

A Legacy of Spies by John le Carré. (My Goodreads Review)

A Legacy of Spies by John le Carré

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve always loved the Cold War stories written by John le Carré. Especially the Cambridge Circus related ones. This particular novel – A Legacy of Spies was set in modern times with the new Secret Service building looking out over the River Thames. The old Soviet v West conflict is over. However, there are two people who want to sue the British security service for past deeds. The story needs to go back to the late 50s and early sixties. Everyone involved in the espionage of this day is dead. All except for Peter Guillam. He is living out his retirement in Brittany France. On the family farm that he has inherited from his Breton Mother’s side of the family.

Guillam is summoned politely to return to the new modern spy HQ. The secret service is in a fluster over the two people bringing charges and a parliamentary investigation over the mishandling of the mission where agent Alec Lemus was killed in 1962. One of the people causing problems is Alec Lemus' German-born, son. The other is the illegitimate daughter of Elizabeth Gold.

John le Carré fans will know of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold title. Well, fasten your seatbelts and enjoy as Peter Guillam is forced to delve into old files and reports. Some tape recordings of Alec Lemus telling his unique story of a 1959 mission. In many ways, this is like a prequel and the reader sees Alec Lemus trying to smuggle an East German Lady out of the Communist bloc just before the Berlin Wall goes up. This was a real peach of a read. All the old favourites are resurrected. We see how Hans Dieter Mundt is recruited and learn of so many other consequences that would lead us to future Smiley stories of Karla etc. It is a fabulous blast from the past. Most enjoyable.

View all my reviews

The Secret Pilgrim by John le Carre (My Goodreads review)

The Secret Pilgrim by John le Carré

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoy anything about George Smiley and his time during the Cold War. I thought we would never come across him again after Smiley's People. Then this story came along. Often George Smiley only has cameo roles in some of his stories. This is one where George is a secondary character. The main man is Ned. Ned has been retired from the Circus spy network. It is about 1989 or 1990. The Cold War is over. He has a class of up and coming hopefuls for Britain's world of espionage. Ned writes a letter to his old mentor George Smiley. He is inviting him to a seminar for the young graduates. The reserved and long retired George Smiley accepts the invitation and turns up for the seminar much to Ned's delight and surprise. As George Smiley starts to give his lecture and answer questions to the young graduates, Ned finds himself reminiscing episodes from his past where George Smiley plays parts within the various stories. We see other characters too. Toby Esterhase, Peter Guillam and the infamous Bill Haydon. This is absolute peach, Le Carre. All the old favourites come out. I loved it all and enjoyed the old style Cold War feel. I can't wait to read The Gathering of Spies.

The Black and Tan Summer: Ireland's Turbulent Year of 1920


View all my reviews

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.

The Black and Tan Summer: Ireland's Turbulent Year of 1920


View all my reviews

Call for the Dead by John le Carre (My Goodreads Review)

Call for the Dead by John le Carré

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was the first of the George Smiley stories, set in Britain during the late 50s I would imagine. When talking in money terms, it is old pounds and shillings. It also has a wonderfully atmospheric feel of Retro London and a good old foggy pea souper.

I had read the Karla trilogy of George Smiley which takes place in the 1970s. I also read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold in which George Smiley has a minor role. That is set in the 60s. Therefore, I was compelled to learn more of this wonderful character called George Smiley - a cultured and, perhaps, rather snobby English gentleman who works in the British Secret Service.

George Smiley is given a fine introduction in the first chapter, allowing the reader to know all about his beginnings and how he is a rather reserved yet intelligent man - quiet and polite with a softly spoken educated English manner. In some ways, most people might find George Smiley boring – a short tubby man with white hair and glasses when the story actually begins. He is middle aged and has been taken for a ride by his estranged and beautiful wife. No one who knew the Smileys could understand how such a marriage union could have happened in the first place.

We have this boring reserved man (George Smiley) whose wife has run off with a dashing Latin lover. This adventurous lover drives motor racing cars and lives in Cuba. Yet despite all of this, somehow this hopelessly smitten man (George Smiley) is our great hero with a modesty and vulnerability that makes him appear hopelessly week. He is a contradictory type of hero with a certain type of negative view of the world. He trusts virtually no one and has a gift for seeing deep inside people and the ability to keep everything to himself. When he does pick friends or confidants they are rare but usually well chosen. He works in an old and drab London office among clerical staff that all seem equally as cheerless. However, once the story gets going, these dull grey offices and the dreary corridors fade into obscurity. Suddenly, the dower and softly spoken English gentleman will become anything but monotonous.

George Smiley is an absolute peach of a British Agent who can decipher and adapt to his opponents well - very well indeed. In this wonderful story, we are introduced to Smiley for the first time as he tackles the suicide of a colleague and the subsequent involvement of East German field agents. Our little tubby man investigates and unravels with great aplomb. This is an absolute peach of a read and I would highly recommend this first George Smiley story.

The Black and Tan Summer: Ireland's Turbulent Year of 1920


View all my reviews