John Le Carre

British agent George Smiley ferrets out a mole in the Secret Service and begins his epic game of international chess with his Soviet counterpart, an agent named Karla. By the best-selling author of The Honourable Schoolboy. Reissue.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Jim Hagan

"Then for a moment one part of Smiley broke into open revolt against the other. The wave of angry doubt which had swept over him in Lacon's garden, and ever since had pulled against his progress like a worrying tide, drove him now on to the rocks of despair, and then on to mutiny: I refuse. Nothing is worth the destruction of another human being. Somewhere the path of pain and betrayal must end. Until that happened, there was no future: there was only a continued slide into still more terrifying versions of the present."

John le Carré

George Smiley, an agent at the very highest level of British Intelligence, enters the twilight world of espionage and his own past when he is assigned to discover which of his four closest colleagues is a double agent.

Tobias V. Langhoff

I watched the film adaptation of this book in 2011. I think I loved it. With my recent (re-)infatuation with spying in the cold war, I decided to read the book, and realized I didn’t even remember the identity of the mole (although I remembered the actor who had played him, so I had to stay off IMDB), let alone the convoluted storyline. I recalled the fantastic atmosphere of the film, however, and the book captures the same feeling. The cold war really seems cold, and drab. There are certain action sequences, but mostly the spying in this story is detective work; going through old files (that do have to be stolen in dramatic fashion) and old memories in order to unravel a conspiracy.

I don’t know what speaks to me about the cold war, but “analog” spying is much more exciting to me than the modern cyber warfare, even though I’m an IT engineer. I wonder if the goofy Whoopi Goldberg film Jumping Jack Flash, which I saw as a kid, made me fall in love with the setting; it involves both digital spying of sorts, and silly action scenes, but still it’s mostly about hidden identities and duplicity.

While the SIS in this book is a bureaucratic and political office job rather than the MI6 of James Bond, the book presents its clandestine operations as exciting – or perhaps unnerving and anxious, full of anticipation and suspense. Like a good, old fashioned thriller, although it’s not exactly thrilling. It’s like a crime novel with a build-up to a climax whose details are concealed from both the protagonist George Smiley and the reader, but with enough clues that an astute reader could uncover the truth. The red herrings along the way are never complete dead ends; everything fits into the jigsaw puzzle. The different ways the mole affects the SIS and makes it work against itself are numerous and intertwined. We feel like we’re the detective, uncovering clues as Smiley does, going along down his memory lane and the testimonies of the people he dig up as important witnesses along the way. These are given as flashbacks, making the plot disjointed in time, mentioning events and people whose significance are not revealed until later, making the Kindle edition’s X-ray feature a godsend. It’s a complex book.

Equally complex is the film, which I re-watched after having read the book. Getting to put distinct faces on each of the characters was a huge help (as was exemplified as my earlier recollection of the actor who played the mole, but not what character that was). The movie is fantastic too, but I’m actually uncertain if it’s better to read the book or film first; complete understanding of the plot might require a less than brilliant person to both read the book and watch the film, or else read the book or watch the film twice. At any rate, they’re both recommended.

would be easier to follow if it wasn’t filled with jargon. still a fun story. 

ben wolfson

In his fifth outing George Smiley is facing a remarkable challenge- a mole who has burrowed his way in and up to the highest level of British Intelligence.

The Smiley Collection

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Dave Walker

Lord Aragorn

One of the best spy novels. It is a hard read given the back-and-forth timelines but just superb! "There are three of them and Alleline."

Prashanth Srivatsa

Littered with spy jargon, war-time metaphors and a whole lot of underground, this brilliant spy novel is all it takes to paint the obsession of criminal minds when it comes to national secrets. Complex in structure, TTSS deals with the uncovering of a Russian mole in the British secret service, a mystery moderated and compressed within old documents, long walks, and the occasional gunshot. Carre burns it slowly, a calculated reveal that has none of the frenzy of a whodunit, but packs it with memorable characters, all of whom find treachery an occupational hazard.

British agent George Smiley hunts for a mole in the Secret Service and begins his epic game of international chess with his Soviet counterpart, an agent named Karla.

Kirsten Simkiss

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was an interesting read. It was a good book, but it's not really something I could see myself reading over and over again for the joy of it. This one was on my list on recommendation from my father. It wasn't really the sort of thing I would have picked up on my own. We had seen the movie, starring Gary Oldman, and he said it didn't really hold a candle to the book. (Truly, he was not wrong. He says the BBC show starring Alec Guinness is much better and that John Le Carré loved Guinness for the the part.) Really, I'd give it 3.5 stars, but I don't have half star options.

The casting for the 2011 movie was all over the place in terms of accuracy. Gary Oldman was far too thin for the role. (In fact, all throughout the book, all I could help but think was that the author himself, actually, was a dead ringer for Smiley.) Guillam was played by someone far too young, considering he was meant to be in his forties in the book at least. John Hurt, however, I thought was brilliantly cast. Even reading it several years after having seen the movie, he was so easy to picture in that role. It was a genius casting decision.

However, this is a book review and not a movie one.

This was John Le Carré's most talked about novel in my living memory. It was put forward to me as the ultimate spy novel. Really, it seemed to me that it was more the ultimate novel of rooting out a mole. It's a showcase of how being a spy works on the home front and how the politics of it all come into play. Naturally, I wasn't even alive in the '70s, so my knowledge of the world there are based on my history books, but it seemed to create it's own politics revolving around Karla, the ever present but mainly unseen villain of the book.

When reading this book, I felt very alienated as a reader. For one, as I'd mentioned, the only knowledge of the politics of the era that I have is taught through history classes and films. Secondly, all the characters are middle aged or old. Even the youngest characters mentioned probably had ten years on me easily. While other reviews mention that the jargon of the book threw them off, I thought it was pretty easy to understand if you've ever seen a spy movie other than James Bond. Additionally, the characters of note are all male. The few female characters are either relatively unimportant lovers to men with multiple lovers or wives who cheat or crazy ex-spy women with nearly eidetic memory.

The main male characters I found difficult to get really attached to. Smiley and Jim Prideaux were the easiest to love, with Guillam maybe worming his way in at the last minute. Interestingly, I found Guillam reminded me of Captain Hastings from Agatha Christie's Poirot mysteries quite a bit. He always seems to be so amazed when Smiley thinks of something Guillam didn't think of and is shocked into a sort of numbness when the spy is outed to be someone he had known and trusted for years. (Why that was a shock for Guillam, given they had narrowed it down to five people in the top brass including Smiley, seems odd to me. But I suppose that even among your most loathed coworkers, you have favorites. Still, no matter who it was, they would have felt betrayed.) Ultimately, my favorite character in the book was easily Jim Prideaux.

Most of this book is George Smiley interviewing people in the service about what happened at the downfall of Control a few years before. The interviews were weirdly written, consistently switching between the person speaking and third person. I would have preferred it all been in the words of the person speaking, personally. I always will prefer overwhelming dialogue to summary. As most of the book is interviews, it grated on me a little. The parts with the action actually happening were far more interesting. The most interesting scenes were easily when Guillam is stealing a file from the Circus and when they're finally going in for the kill - setting up the mole to finally be caught after years of leaking secrets to the Russians.

The tone of the book was rather dark and serious the whole time. If you're looking for something that's fun and light, I would very much recommend you look elsewhere. I would really recommend this to people who love spy literature - though chances are that if you love espionage stories, you've probably already read this one.

Sian Wadey

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre

I read this book in preparation for going to see the film when it came out of the cinema and as soon as I started reading it, I was hooked. 
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was one of the most tense books I have ever read. As it neared towards the climax and the mole was revealed I was reading so fast because I couldn't wait to find out who it was! This book certainly has 'the pull' as well as memorable characters. I love the fact that George Smiley is overweight and wears glasses, not the typical spy of modern novels.
The reason why I only gave it three stars was because for some parts of the book, I had no idea what was going on. It's very complicated and you really need to concentrate. If I was tired, or my mind was focused on other things I would feel it wandering and I would have to reread the page or paragraph. I also guessed who the mole was before the reveal!
Overall, a book everyone should read, simply because it's legendary. But be prepared to concentrate!

Tracey O’Rourke

I read this hoping that it would give me background to make sense of the movie (which I have not yet seen), but in the first third of the book all I felt was confused. There were so many characters and so many convoluted relationships, that I had no idea what was going on. But then the book really got going. The next two thirds were really quite interesting, and the way in which Smiley went around figuring out who the mole was quite interesting. I hadn't figured it out myself at the final reveal, and that is rare. 

I can see, however, from the book, that it could be a really excellent movie. 

I recommend with reservations.

Gordon McLean

Bit of a slow read, odd for a 'thriller' but this richly layered story requires diligent attention and the rewards are rich.

A slow building thriller but worth a read, although quite how Le Carre keeps all the plot twists, threads and flashbacks working is beyond me, I had to pause to re-read at times just to make sure I had things clear in my head.

Diane Wang

Darren Olivier

Robin Howie

Ben S

The first part of John le Carré's acclaimed Karla Trilogy, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy sees the beginning of the stealthy Cold War cat-and-mouse game between the taciturn, dogged George Smiley and his wily Soviet counterpart. A mole, implanted by Moscow Centre, has infiltrated the highest ranks of the British Intelligence Service, almost destroying it in the process. And so former spymaster George Smiley has been brought out of retirement in order to hunt down the traitor at the very heart of the Circus - even though it may be one of those closest to him. 'A stunning story' Wall Street Journal 'A great thriller, the best le Carré has written' Spectator THE FIFTH GEORGE SMILEY NOVEL

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Reviews