- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Sceptre (14 May 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340993731
- ISBN-13: 978-0340993736
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 1.4 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 218,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'Beautifully intelligent, satiric and witty' -- Daily Telegraph 'Vastly entertaining' -- Sunday Telegraph 'For my money, le Carre is the equal of any novelist now writing in English' -- Guardian
Review
'Beautifully intelligent, satiric and witty'
(Daily Telegraph )'Vastly entertaining'
(Sunday Telegraph )'For my money, le Carré is the equal of any novelist now writing in English'
(Guardian )
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An early day George Smiley is called to solev an murder mystery at one of the nations best public schools. Here you'll find many familiar elements which made Le Carre greater novels: a younger Smiley, an elitist environment and down to earth police inspectors. Smiley is not as much drawn out as in later novels, but is there allright. A Murder of Quality is one of Le Carre finer sketches, a prelude of much what was to come.
The books reads perfectly as a Murder Whodunnit, much like Agatha Christie, but with familair Le Carre characters. Between the lines, Le Carre takes a dig at some of teh snobbish and extraordinary characters of a public school.
I've read it at one go, didn't bore me at all. Recommended
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I think this is one of the first Le Carre novels, and Smiley appears in it for some reason or another, even if it is not a spy novel.
Murder has happened at a private school. A boy has been killed.
Based on this premise, Smiley has to become acquainted with the small inner life of this school, its apparent grandeur and fashionable respectability, and its mean everyday life which hides behind the surface. Investigation is a way to expose the inanity of British society in the 50s before the great crisis of the 60s.
Very well written as all Le Carre works, this is your novel if you like Agatha Christie, if you prefer murder in the parish yard instead of the gutter crime of the black series.
Murder has happened at a private school. A boy has been killed.
Based on this premise, Smiley has to become acquainted with the small inner life of this school, its apparent grandeur and fashionable respectability, and its mean everyday life which hides behind the surface. Investigation is a way to expose the inanity of British society in the 50s before the great crisis of the 60s.
Very well written as all Le Carre works, this is your novel if you like Agatha Christie, if you prefer murder in the parish yard instead of the gutter crime of the black series.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
... This is a murder mystery in the classic mould. It is also a sideways glance at class, via the ludicrous tradition and snobbery of an English public school.
We learn a little more about George Smiley [we never learn much, but every book sheds a little more light]and we see him in an unfamiliar setting.
The plot is well structured and, as ever, lucidly written. The whodunit element is present, but it isn't too hard to outguess George and get to the murderer quite swiftly.
I read this in one sitting-it is not a long book, but it is every bit as satisfying as the author's more sustained efforts.
Recommended.
Bill
We learn a little more about George Smiley [we never learn much, but every book sheds a little more light]and we see him in an unfamiliar setting.
The plot is well structured and, as ever, lucidly written. The whodunit element is present, but it isn't too hard to outguess George and get to the murderer quite swiftly.
I read this in one sitting-it is not a long book, but it is every bit as satisfying as the author's more sustained efforts.
Recommended.
Bill
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
We Step into John LeCarre's Fictional Universe Here
A Murder of Quality," (1963), was but the second novel published by British author extraordinaire John LeCarre, pseudonym of David Cornwell. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Stephanie DePue
A Murder of Quality
A good bok, perhaps not as sharp as A Call for the Dead as it is not a spy story but an entertaining read in a plane nonetheless
Published 23 months ago by Mr. R. K. Chivers
Smiley's good but Le Carre even better.
As one of the new season of Smiley adventures/intregues being run by the BBC Radio 4 "A murder of quality" is compelling reading as are so many of Le Carre's works. Read more
Published on 30 Jan 2010 by JS
George Smiley's second appearance
This slim book is John Le Carré's second novel, written while working as a British diplomat in Bonn and Bern or elsewhere in a roving capacity, and again it stars George... Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2010 by P. A. Doornbos
A Nice Little Tale
My husband passed this book on to me, having borrowed it from our local library. I found it charming, very readable, and enjoyable. Read more
Published on 13 Jan 2010 by CeeCee
Disappointing and dated. Give it a miss!
This is the second in Le Carre's Smiley series and it didn't work for me at all. It's nothing to do with the world of espionage. Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2009 by Rowena Hoseason
Claustrophobic 'English' public school mystery. Dated and...
This is the second in Le Carre's Smiley series and it didn't work for me at all. It's nothing to do with the world of espionage. Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2009 by Rowena Hoseason
Smiley: Godfather of Morse?
Le Carre's second novel sees his most famous character, George Smiley, co-opted to solve a murder in an upper class public school. Read more
Published on 26 April 2009 by Axnettle
Has he lost his Marples??
A very weird cul-de-sac on the Smiley trail casts George as a male heir to Miss Marple in a bonkers and highly unconvincing murder mystery. Read more
Published on 7 Jan 2004 by Booksthatmatter
A slightly bizarre detective story.
This doesn't really fit into le Carre's series of spy mysteries. Nevertheless, it is a great story with a clever plot. Read more
Published on 3 April 2001
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