A Legacy of Spies

Master spy novelist John Le Carre is back and so is his most famous fictional master spy George Smiley.

Sort of.

Well, there’s nothing “sort of” about Le Carre. 

He is still at the top of his game with his latest novel, “A Legacy of Spies.” The writing is comprehensive, the plotting complex, the characters well defined. Le Carre’s spy novels are not the whiz-bang of James Bond; rather, they are the intricacies of human relations, lies and deceit, love and loyalty. 

“Legacy” is touted as Le Carre’s return to George Smiley, the central spymaster of his masterpiece works, such as “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” and “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” 

Smiley looms large in “Legacy” but people expecting him to be the central character of the book may be disappointed.

Instead, the novel centers on Peter Guillam, Smiley’s colleague within British Secret Service, now retired. The service finds Guillam, in effect taking him into custody, to interrogate him and seek his help in a pending lawsuit involving a decades-old case.

Through Guillam’s recollections and perusal of past files, readers learn of a tale stretching back to the days when he and his superior officer Smiley were in their full within the Service. But present-day Smiley’s whereabouts are unknown.

“Legacy” proves that Le Carre remains the master, incorporating age into the narrative, a tour de force for the thinking man’s spy.