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Call for the Dead
 
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Call for the Dead (Paperback)

by John Le Carre (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Sceptre; New Ed edition (20 Jul 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0340766468
  • ISBN-13: 978-0340766460
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 371,858 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #79 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Authors, A-Z > L > Le Carre, John > Complete List

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Product Description

Review
'Intelligent, thrilling, surprising ... makes most cloak-and-dagger stuff taste of cardboard' -- Sunday Telegraph 'Brilliant. Realistic. Constant suspense. Excellent writing' -- THE OBSERVER --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Sunday Telegraph
‘Intelligent, thrilling, surprising ... makes most cloak-and-dagger stuff taste of cardboard' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Call for the Dead
56% buy the item featured on this page:
Call for the Dead 4.2 out of 5 stars (6)
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Impressive debut., 26 Sep 1999
By Peter Fenelon - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Call for the Dead (Paperback)
The first of Le Carre's novels, this marks the fictional debut of George Smiley. This is a downbeat and perhaps slightly parochial tale played out in an early-sixties London really still recovering from World War 2. Smiley is at the nadir of his career; moved sideways into security clearing civil servants. Why does one of the men he interviews commit suicide? The investigation leads Smiley back through his own past as an agent and through the early Cold War.

A novel which has much to say about post-war Britain, about the frailty of human relationships in the Great Game of espionage, but its main interest is in the way it establishes the character of George Smiley.

A few inconsistencies with the later novels - in particular, Peter Guillam is presented as a near-contemporary of Smiley's, whereas he is later reinvented as a younger man.

On the whole, an excellent debut, setting the tone for the later novels.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction to Smiley, 22 Aug 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Call for the Dead (Lamplighter) (Hardcover)
This is a fairly easy read, but a good one. It is an ideal introduction to both John le Carre and George Smiley. Although set in the cold war it is more of a detective novel than an espionage novel. Smiley sets out to discover why a routine and harmless security interview leads to suicide.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars This is a good introduction to George Smiley, 9 Mar 2001
By A Customer
If you haven't read any of the Smiley books, this short book is a good place to start. Written and set at the height of the Cold War, George Smiley is seen by the Department as a 'has-been' and is restricted to routine work. In the course of this he does a routine interview of a senior civil servant. Even though he assures the man that he is perfectly satisfied, the man apparently commits suicide. The twists and turns of the plot are well-told and satisfying and the answer to the mystery are not telegraphed too early. Overall, a good read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Class acts never fade
Le Carre's earlier works which I read almost as they were published, are not just classics of the spy-fiction genre. They are classics of English literature. Read more
Published 14 hours ago by Saul Pinhas

5.0 out of 5 stars The beginnings of the spy master George Smiley
This is less a spy story than a detective novel, although the main character is an agent. We are introduced to probably the most plausible spy ever to come from the pen of an... Read more
Published on 11 April 2007 by Anthony Last

3.0 out of 5 stars Come on now - did spies ever really behave like this?
This enjoyable detective novel certainly entertains. It made me stick with it through to the last page to discover if it really was possible to a construct a plausible explanation... Read more
Published on 18 Jan 2003 by NICHOLAS W OSBORNE

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