1028. Smiley's People (John Le Carre)

Cover of first edition

Synopsis:
Into a shadowy, violent and intricate world steeped in moral ambivalences steps George Smiley, sometime acting Chief of the Circus, as the Secret Service is known. His brief is to bury crime, not solve it, as he fights his own private battle from London to Paris and to Hamburg for his last duel with his Russian opposite number, codenamed Karla.

My rating: 4 stars

932. The Honourable Schoolboy (John Le Carre)

Hong Kong at night

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
This is the second of le Carre's Smiley novels, featuring the character of George Smiley who was introduced in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy". The story involves the betrayal of a Soviet spy and suspicions that the network has been infiltrated from the top downwards.

My rating: 5 stars

My review: Current authors of thrillers could learn a lesson or a hundred about writing from Le Carre. A case that is essentially a paper chase is told thrillingly.

786. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (John Le Carre)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
Smiley and his people are facing a remarkable challenge: a mole -- a Soviet double agent -- who has burrowed his way in and up to the highest level of British Intelligence. His treachery has already blown some of their vital operations and their best networks. The mole is one of their own kind. But which one?

My rating: 5 stars

My review: Classic. Everything about Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is great: the writing, the plot, the characters. One of the best (maybe the best?) spy novels ever written -- all the more incredible given the fact that there is actually very little action in the book.