A Murder of Quality - by John Le Carré (Paperback)

About the Book

Le Carre's second novel offers an exquisite, satirical look at an elite private school as it chronicles the early development of George Smiley.

Book Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Legacy of Spies.

"Fielding and Jebedee were dead, Steed-Asprey vanished. Smiley--where was he?"

John le Carré's second novel, A Murder of Quality, offers an exquisite, satirical look at an elite private school as it chronicles the early development of George Smiley.

Miss Ailsa Brimley is in a quandary. She's received a peculiar letter from Mrs. Stella Rode, saying that she fears her husband--an assistant master at Carne School--is trying to kill her. Reluctant to go to the police, Miss Brimley calls upon her old wartime colleague, George Smiley. Unfortunately, it's too late. Mrs. Rode has just been murdered. As Smiley takes up the investigation, he realizes that in life--as in espionage--nothing is quite what it appears.

Review Quotes

"[Le Carre] is one of our great writers of moral ambiguity, a tireless explorer of that darkly contradictory no-man's land."

--Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times

"Beautifully intelligent, satiric, and witty."--The Observer (UK)

"Vastly entertaining."--The Sunday Telegraph (UK)

"Le Carre is simply the world's greatest fictional spymaster."--Newsweek

"Beautifully intelligent, satiric and witty."--Observer (UK)

"Le Carre is simply the world''s greatest fictional spymaster."--Newsweek

"Vastly entertaining."--Sunday Telegraph (UK)

"Beautifully intelligent, satiric and witty."

"Vastly entertaining."

About the Author

John le Carré was born in 1931. For six decades, he wrote novels that came to define our age. The son of a con man, he spent his childhood between boarding school and the London underworld. At sixteen he found refuge at the university of Bern, then later at Oxford. A spell of teaching at Eton led him to a short career in British Intelligence (MI5&6). He published his debut novel, Call for the Dead, in 1961 while still a secret servant. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley's People. At the end of the Cold War, le Carré widened his scope to explore an international landscape including the arms trade and the War on Terror. His memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, was published in 2016 and the last George Smiley novel, A Legacy of Spies, appeared in 2017. He died on December 12, 2020.