Call for the Dead by John le Carre
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
Print: COPYRIGHT: (1961) ; PUBLISHER: Random House, 1st edition; ISBN 978-0241337080; PAGES 304; Unabridged

Digital: Yes

*Audio: COPYRIGHT: 11/9/2004; ISBN: 9780786133130; PUBLISHER: Blackstone Audio; DURATION: 04:31:18; PARTS:49; File Size: 130443 KB; Unabridged

Feature Film or tv: Filmed as “The Deadly Affair”, released in 1966.

SERIES: Smiley Series, Book 1

CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive)
George Smiley – Secret Intelligence Service Investigator
Lady Ann Sercombe – George’s wife who deserted him for another man
Maston – Secret Intelligence Service Advisor
Mendel – A Police Inspector on the verge of retirement
Peter Guillam – George’s protege
Samuel Fennan - Foreign Office civil servant
Elsa Fennan – Samuel’s wife

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
How I picked it: My friend, Isa, had liked a movie that was based on one of this author’s books, so rather than read that book, I wanted to start with the first book the author wrote, this one.
What’s it about? An SIS agent resigns from his post to conduct an investigation when he suspects an alleged suicide is actually a murder and his superior forbids him to investigate it.
What did I think? It had a way, as some British books do, of losing my interest. I had to relisten to parts, and grew a bit bored with parts, but overall, I did like it enough to read more by the author, though perhaps not in a hurry.

AUTHOR:
John le Carre’
From Wikipedia:
“David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 1931 – 12 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré (/ləˈkæreɪ/ lə-KARR-ay),[1] was a British author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. "[One] of the greatest novelists of the postwar era", during the 1950s and 1960s he worked for both the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).[2] He is considered to have been a "sophisticated, morally ambiguous writer".[3]”

NARRATOR:
Ralph Cosham
From Wikipedia:
“Ralph Howard Cosham (25 February 1936 – 30 September 2014),[1] was a British-born American film, stage and voice actor and book narrator. Cosham also recorded under the name Geoffrey Howard.[2] He lived in Reston, Virginia. He was a member of the acting companies of the Washington Theatre Club, the Folger Shakespeare Library, Arena Stage and the Shakespeare Theater all in Washington, DC.[3] Cosham changed careers from British journalist to actor in the 1970s.[2] Several of his works were awarded "Audio Best of the Year" by Publishers Weekly.[2]

Ralph Cosham died of an illness on Tuesday, 30 September 2014 at his home in Reston, Virginia, at the age of 78.[4]”

GENRE:
Fiction; Mystery; Suspense

LOCATIONS:
London

TIME FRAME:
1960’s

SUBJECTS:
SIS; Spies; Murder

SAMPLE QUOTATION:

When Lady Ann followed her star to Cuba, she gave some thought to Smiley. With grudging admiration she admitted to herself that if there were an only man in her life, Smiley would be he. She was gratified in retrospect that she had demonstrated this by holy matrimony. The effect of Lady Ann’s departure upon her former husband did not interest society—which indeed is unconcerned with the aftermath of sensation. Yet it would be interesting to know what Sawley and his flock might have made of Smiley’s reaction; of that fleshy, bespectacled face puckered in energetic concentration as he read so deeply among the lesser German poets, the chubby wet hands clenched beneath the tumbling sleeves. But Sawley profited by the occasion with the merest of shrugs by remarking partir c’est courir un peu, and he appeared to be unaware that though Lady Ann just ran away, a little of George Smiley had indeed died. That part of Smiley which survived was as incongruous to his appearance as love, or a taste for unrecognized poets: it was his profession, which was that of intelligence officer. It was a profession he enjoyed, and which mercifully provided him with colleagues equally obscure in character and origin. It also provided him with what he had once loved best in life: academic excursions into the mystery of human behaviour, disciplined by the practical application of his own deductions. Some time in the twenties when Smiley had emerged from his unimpressive school and lumbered blinking into the murky cloisters of his unimpressive Oxford College, he had dreamed of Fellowships and a life devoted to the literary obscurities of seventeenth-century Germany. But his own tutor, who knew Smiley better, guided him wisely away from the honours that would undoubtedly have been his. On a sweet July morning in 1928, a puzzled and rather pink Smiley had sat before an interviewing board of the Overseas Committee for Academic Research, an organization of which he had unaccountably never heard. Jebedee (his tutor) had been oddly vague about the introduction: “Give these people a try, Smiley, they might have you and they pay badly enough to guarantee you decent company.” But Smiley was annoyed and said so. It worried him that Jebedee, usually so precise, was so evasive. In a slight huff he agreed to postpone his reply to All Souls until he had seen Jebedee’s “mysterious people.”

RATING:.
5

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
10-20-2022 to 11-7-2022 ( )

Excellently written, with plenty of plot twists and action. I liked George Smiley very much. His two partners in solving the murder of Samuel Fennan, are Mendel and Guillam. They look out for each other and work together well.

Who is the spy? Fennan or his wife Elsa? Smiley is brilliant in working through what he learns from the widow Elsa. Who placed the 8:30 call and why? (Hence the title of the book.). Smiley is faced with a person from his past whom he worked with during the war and who was and is an extremely detailed and clever intelligence operative.

Luckily for Smiley, Mendel and Guillam are there for him when he’s attacked and also to work through the “trap” to catch the spy and the handler. It’s a thrilling chase.

I liked the wrap up of facts provided by Smiley in the report he writes for his supervisor. I also like learning about Smiley’s earlier life and work.

I can’t wait to read the next one. ( I read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy a few years ago.) ( )

This is the first George Smiley spy novel, which as noted I sought out to fulfill a need for a decent spy novel since it's been so long since the last Slow Horses novel. This was a good read, and I will read more, but this was more like a murder mystery/police procedural than a spy novel, as the spying issue seems only peripheral to the main story.

Smiley is sent to interview a civil servant, Samuel Fennon , about potential communist contacts back when he was a student. The interview goes well, and Smiley is assured there's nothing untoward about Fennon. He tells Fennon all is well. But the next day, Fennon is dead, an apparent suicide, and his wife says he was upset and fearful about the interview with Smiley. On interviewing the wife, Smiley notices things that are inconsistent with the verdict of suicide that the police seem to have reached rather quickly. Smiley begins to investigate.

This was a short quick read. There are no shoot outs or car chases, just good sleuthing. Smiley is unassuming, calm, and deliberate. I will be reading more.

3 stars ( )

This is the birth of Smiley as we know him in his later book. Short, fat with a moustache and nearing retirement, Smiley finds himself embroiled in the death of a man, Fennan, that he had just interviewed as a vetting procedure after a complaint.

Maston his chief, 'who wants a K', doesn't want the truth but for Smiley to just clear things up and move on. He can't however and goes to speak to Fennan's widow where stories and timelines start to unravel. The book is more novella than novel length and I did guess what had happened before the ending but was engaged enough not to worry about that.

I loved the first chapter A Brief History of George Smiley as it set out exactly what the title says and whilst you might be thinking why do we have this, it is a necessary part of the plot. I can't think of another book where I have been told upfront about the history of the protaganist quite so straightforwardly and I enjoyed it for the context whilst realising its intended relevance as you move through the story. We are also introduced to his rather tricky marriage to Lady Ann who at this point has run off with a Cuban race car driver. By the end of the book he is off to Switzerland to bring her back.

Le Carré's books have always had a focus on class and the morality of the characters and these are reflected in this book as well. Smiley is shown not to come from Eton and so on through his desire to have things done a particular way with the right wine and cutlery in the correct placements. Always a give away of someone who has been shown these things rather than grown up with them and who is quite relaxed about them. Lady Ann does not come across well, with a fair bit of repetition around the fact that no one could believe she was with Smiley, so eleagant and urbane and so unlike Smiley.

Enjoyable but not earth shattering. ( )

Is it weird that I'm diving back into the Cold War in an attempt to figure out what's going on? Probably, but it's still an excellent adventure. ( )