The second novel of le Carré's Karla Trilogy, following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and preceding Smiley's People.

The "Circus" (MI6) is in sorry shape after the mole "Gerald" was unmasked. George Smiley, now head of the Circus, must go on the offense. They find a trail of money leading to a Hong Kong busi­ness­man, Drake Ko. Jerry Westerby, a newspaper reporter and occasional agent, is sent out to Hong Kong to shake Ko's tree.

Smiley is a secondary character here. Jerry is the honourable schoolboy of the …continue.

After panning Prior Bad Acts and Adept, I needed to read a good book. I found it in John le Carré's classic cold war spy novel, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

George Smiley, quiet, unassuming, pudgy, and easily overlooked, is recently retired from the Service (MI6, the British in­tel­li­gence agency). He is secretly tasked with finding a mole in the highest reaches of the Service, run by Karla, a KGB spymaster. The mole can only be one of the four most senior men. Smiley begins piecing together the evidence from …continue.