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Call for the Dead

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Call for the Dead

By: John le Carré
Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale
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Brought to you by Penguin.

THE FIRST GEORGE SMILEY NOVEL

After a routine security check by George Smiley, civil servant Samuel Fennan apparently kills himself. When Smiley finds Circus head Maston is trying to blame him for the death, he begins his own investigation, meeting Fennan's widow to find out what led him to such desperation. On the very day Smiley is ordered off the enquiry he receives an urgent letter from the dead man. Do the East Germans - and their agents - know more about this man's death than the Circus previously imagined?

Le Carré's first book, Call for the Dead, introduced the tenacious and retiring spy George Smiley in a gripping tale of espionage and deceit.

'Intelligent, thrilling, surprising . . . makes most cloak-and-dagger stuff taste of cardboard' Sunday Telegraph

'Brilliant. Realistic. Constant suspense' Observer

'The greatest spy novelist of all time' Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph

©le Carré Productions 1961 (P)Penguin Audio 2024

 Amateur Sleuths Classics Espionage Mystery Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller & Suspense Exciting
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Continue the series
A Legacy of Spies cover art
A Legacy of Spies By: John le Carré

Critic reviews

Intelligent, thrilling, surprising ... makes most cloak-and-dagger stuff taste of cardboard.
Brilliant. Realistic. Constant suspense.
The greatest spy novelist of all time ... astounding works of the imagination. (Jake Kerridge)
Brilliant, popular, intelligent, thrilling, suspenseful, angry, original, masterful writing. Can't be topped. (Armando Iannucci)
An extraordinary writer who brought literary lustre and lived insight to the spy yarn. (Ian Rankin)
One of those writers who will be read a century from now. (Robert Harris)
His Smiley novels are key to understanding the mid-20th century. (Margaret Atwood)
What Joseph Conrad started, John le Carré enshrined and made modern. That is the real achievement of his great novels and why they will endure ... we should see him as our contemporary Dickens. (William Boyd)
All stars
Most relevant
A very entertaining performance and the starting book with George Smiley! I enjoyed it all very much and intend to get on with the next Smiley book now!

Solid performance and ingenious plot

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Liked the pace and twists of the plot, the clever descriptions of ordinary scenes, mentioning the barely perceptible details of everyday life.

Clever plot, engaging and fantastically creative descriptions

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You can’t go wrong with Le Carre, and with Simon Russell Beale reading, you quite simply have perfection.

Brilliant

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This book is the first in the 'Smiley' series and although not as heavyweight as the later 'Karla trilogy', a good story nonetheless. The issue is that the narration of this story, though passable, is significantly inferior to the Michael Jayston recordings of Le Carre's books. Audible appears to have removed most of those - the books having been (or in the process of being) re-released with new narrators. It is a shame because none of them come close to Jayston IMO. I am fortunate enough to have purchased most of those recordings when they were available, but this was not one of them, Beale does not have the same gravitas, and for the most part I found it difficult to differentiate between characters, since he makes them all sound the same.

Inferior narration

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Le Carre is the very best at his trade. Brilliantly descriptive characters within ingenious plot

Brilliantly descriptive characters within ingenious plot

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