Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Another fantastic novel by author John le Carre is ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’, which was first published in 1974. This novel brings back Carre’s popular character, George Smiley. Though Smiley is now retired, he is recruited by the Circus, a spy agency, when they have reason to believe that someone is a mole (internal spy). Smiley heads to his London apartment and discovers his old partner and protégé is already there, waiting for him.

Peter tells Smiley about one of his men, Tarr, who had an affair with a Russian woman, during the course of his last assignment. This woman told him that one of her other lovers worked for a Soviet man who might be the mole.

The mole had actually been planted in order to keep attention from a different operation altogether. When the man has told Smiley his story, he is killed, in revenge for revealing what he knew. The book ends with Smiley being left as the head of the Circus. This is another Smiley novel fans will love.

Smiley and Peter begin to piece everything together. He interviews a number of people, in order to discover anything they may know. One of these people is a man who had an affair with Smiley’s own wife and he is forced to face personal feelings during this time. A series of events lead Smiley to be in the company of a man who explains what led him to become a mole. He tells them that the entire operation had been a trap, right from the beginning.

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