A Murder of Quality

Only le Carré's second work (and hence the second appearance of Smiley), but the potential/seeds of genius have already been sown. While the format of this story is quite conventional – a murder whodunit in the style of Allingham/Christie, and nothing to do with spying and espionage – le Carré's observations about human nature are superb. Smiley learns how, through discretion and being inconspicuous, he can become confident that liars will reveal themselves and that patience will be rewarded (for bad people live in a Hobbesian world). Beyond this, the reveal was executed deftly, and it would only have been possible to have guessed it had one picked up on all the subtly laid previous clues. Eight and a half out of ten.

By John le Carré