The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John le Carré

The book opens in Cold War era Berlin, in the early 60s. Spymaster Alec Leamas has just seen his network of agents systematically eradicated by his opposite number in the East German secret police, Hans Dieter Mundt, with the last one shot dead attempting to cross at a checkpoint. Leamas returns to London to report back to Control, head of the British secret service known as The Circus. However, Leamas has one last job to do, before he can 'come in from the cold' and retire from active duty.

He is reassigned to a low level desk job in the finance section, before being fired for embezzlement and losing his pension rights in the process. He ends up in a menial position shelving books in a library and even a brief fling with a co worker can't stop him spiralling into an alcoholic haze and ending up in prison after assaulting a shop worker.

On his release, he is approached by a charming man, with the offer of a substantial amount of money in return for providing some information about his time in Berlin. It all sounds too good to be true, and Leamas reluctantly allows himself to be recruited as a traitor, handing over details of what he knows about British Intelligence operations.

He is now playing a risky game of bluff and counter bluff as a double agent, in a last ditch effort to compromise the villainous Mundt, but who is pulling the strings? Could the mysterious Smiley, also retired from the Circus, have anything to do with it?

This is a great book, with an air of grubby authenticity a world away from the glamorous trappings of James Bond and his ilk. There are no heroes here, and the agents are more likely to have a cup of tea in a shabby office than a Martini in a casino. The inevitable denouement is a bleak and depressing one. 

Although Le Carré was portrayed in contemporary reviews as an ex spy, the truth is a little different. He was employed as a fairly low level intelligence officer before becoming an author, but all of the details of tradecraft and jargon are purely works of his considerable imagination. He stated publicly that if any of the book was true, MI6 would have blocked its publication. However, the true irony is that because it all seemed so believable, real spies started talking of 'moles' and other terms that he invented, in a genuine case of life imitating art.