Call for the Dead (2003)

By John Le Carre
A story involving Le Carre’s famous hero, George Smiley, the ultimate spy. Set around the same era as the James Bond novels (Cold War), but so much more interesting – probably because George Smiley has much more depth than Bondy, and because it’s a book it doesn’t matter so much that he’s a bit podgy and sweats a lot.

Smiley interviews an MP who’s been accused of having Communist sympathies – and the same man turns up dead the next day, apparently having killed himself after his talk with Smiley. There’s a scandal, and Smiley senses he’s about to be made the sacrificial lamb. Then someone tries to kill him and all sorts of other exciting things happen.

This is spying as I had always imagined it, with people sending each other coded messages on postcards and swapping secret documents in music cases at the theatre. Why is this so much more suspenseful than the shark attacks and voodoo magic of James Bond? Perhaps because it is easier to feel empathy with poor, sad, tired George Smiley.

Rating: 8 out of 10