Call for the Dead

The answer is that it wasn't!

Ultimately when it came the conclusion did not string it all together convincingly. Without wishing to disclose too much of the plot I would simply say that I really cannot believe that in the real world of espionage agents would devise such cack-handed, clumsy, and awkward methods for arranging meetings and document hand-overs etc. My impression of the creative process that lead to the construction of this novel is that it was akin to one of those "join the dots" drawings toddlers enjoy - Le Carre scattered a handful of pebbles of plot set-pieces and then, after leading the reader around the houses for a while, attempted to link them all up at the end. But he failed. Ultimately the way these spies behaved, to me at least, was laughably implausible - but nevertheless entertaining. And the book allows us to look at the, now distant, world of post war England through the eyes of one thoroughly imbued with the class-consciousness of what Orwell once called the "lower upper middle classes" of that time.


Good introduction to Smiley   August 22, 2002
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

This is a fairly easy read, but a good one. It is an ideal introduction to both John le Carre and George Smiley. Although set in the cold war it is more of a detective novel than an espionage novel. Smiley sets out to discover why a routine and harmless security interview leads to suicide.


This is a good introduction to George Smiley   March 9, 2001
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

If you haven't read any of the Smiley books, this short book is a good place to start. Written and set at the height of the Cold War, George Smiley is seen by the Department as a 'has-been' and is restricted to routine work. In the course of this he does a routine interview of a senior civil servant. Even though he assures the man that he is perfectly satisfied, the man apparently commits suicide. The twists and turns of the plot are well-told and satisfying and the answer to the mystery are not telegraphed too early. Overall, a good read.


Impressive debut.   September 26, 1999
Peter Fenelon
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

The first of Le Carre's novels, this marks the fictional debut of George Smiley. This is a downbeat and perhaps slightly parochial tale played out in an early-sixties London really still recovering from World War 2. Smiley is at the nadir of his career; moved sideways into security clearing civil servants. Why does one of the men he interviews commit suicide? The investigation leads Smiley back through his own past as an agent and through the early Cold War.

A novel which has much to say about post-war Britain, about the frailty of human relationships in the Great Game of espionage, but its main interest is in the way it establishes the character of George Smiley.

A few inconsistencies with the later novels - in particular, Peter Guillam is presented as a near-contemporary of Smiley's, whereas he is later reinvented as a younger man.

On the whole, an excellent debut, setting the tone for the later novels.