jpnudell 's review for:

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré

4.5

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As much of a classic as Tinker Tailor, this was Le Carrè's breakout novel. It follows Alec Leamas, a former station head in Berlin who lost his agent Karl Riemeck to counterintelligence operations headed by Hans-Dieter Mundt. Upon his return to Britain, Control approaches him about a feigned defection that could turn Mundt's deputy Jens Fiedler against him. So Leamas "leaves" the service, turns to drink, and strikes up a relationship with Liz Gold, a young woman and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, but whom he tries to keep out of the plans. The back half of the book is Leamas's defection, interrogation, and Mundt's trial, though, as befits a Le Carré novel it is never entirely clear who is on trial. I find the twists of this novel are buried just touch more deeply than I care for. Nothing is as it seems in this world, but both the evidence for and consequences of the duplicity lands beyond the scope of Leamas's plot, which simply wasn't as interesting to me. Still a gripping story.