Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Call for the Dead: A George Smiley Novel (George Smiley Novels Book 1)

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Dr. Allustre

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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 14, 2023

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Scott Wozniak

colorful but slow

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 7, 2022

This is the first book in what became a famous spy series. The characters are really colorful but it’s slow paced, mostly the detectives discussing the questions and the possible solutions. Also, the author uses a cheap trick to make the surprise: he just says “they came up with a plan” and doesn’t tell us what they decided so it feels more exciting when they do it.

I may check out the next in the series because many reviews say that’s where the series gets really good.

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Dr. Allustre

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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 14, 2023

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Raymonda

Early Smiley/LeCarre - Mendel introduced

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 6, 2022

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A short novel. Satisfying but not as complex as later Smiley novels. Whenever I read a book with characters from Tinker, tailor and Smileys people, I always see the actors in the original BBC production. They were indelible.

3 people found this helpful

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Sublime

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 5, 2023

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Writing that transcends any “genre” and wonderful fully developed characters. This is neither dated nor cliched. A fantastic introduction to Le Carrie.

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E. Clinton

Espionage Mystery

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 29, 2022

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This is a beautifully written and plotted espionage novel. It is the first novel in the George Smiley series and all of the character traits that distinguish Smiley appear in the book.

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Ambrose Rankin

Smiley's Debut

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 30, 2022

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I decided to go back and read all the Smiley novels. No. 1 has held up very well over the years. Good plot, good characters, and of course wonderful writing.

2 people found this helpful

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Mindo'ermatter

Most Engaging Story---A Short, Fast Read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 25, 2019

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After starting Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, I recognized my need to begin the George Smiley series from the beginning to avoid missing the subtle implications rooted in Le Carre's earlier works. I was so glad I did, now having completed the whole series, I am better prepared to review each in order and in context of understanding the whole set.

This story begins George Smiley's checkered and most eventful life of spying and marital discord, reflecting his uncanny observational skills hidden within his quiet and understated personality. His calm, deliberate ways adds to his lovable character and seemingly unassuming expectations.

After completing all the Smiley novels, George will become a beloved member of your family in whom you could trust your life amid the corruption of the intelligence agencies of all nations. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey, hoping it would not end, but so grateful for having experienced it and learning so much along the way.

John Le Carre seemingly autobiographical tones and impressions fill this and subsequent volumes with wise observations of humanity, bureaucrats, and imperfect individuals trying survive while hoping to accomplish something important---something meaningful.

The Audible narrations proved invaluable in creating overtones of the tragic comedy life too often imposes on the unsuspecting.

In the end, this path of spycraft, deception, and intrigue will leave you warily suspicious of governments and politicians and their misguided aims for their programmatic impositions on all of us.

This first and shorter installment sets the stage for the longer works that follow and is a most rewarding read.

8 people found this helpful

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Moviegeek

An astounding start

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 7, 2021

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Having never read a John le Carré novel, all I knew was that he’d been in the spy business in some way and now was writing spy fiction.

It holds up. This book is a tight 157 page thriller that starts slow, and proceeds to pick up steam to its thrilling final moments, all before winding down briefly to the almost plodding start.

The best part is that nothing in this short book feels wasted - even the tiny side details as the main character thinks, serve to help us illuminate who Smiley is a bit more, and then it’s back to the action.

Don’t get me wrong - this isn’t the explosive world of a Vince Flynn political action hero, or the patriotic all American of a Tom Clancy novel.

Smiley is almost a spy who despises it, and the book at times moves so slowly because that is the world he waits in and wades through.

But dang if it wasn’t thrilling as each detail came into view, and le Carré is meticulous about making sure he’s not trying to magically reveal some unexpected twist. He just lets you get to the conclusion exactly as Smilely does. It’s well paced, finely reasoned, and an amazing start. I already bought the series so I can keep going.

3 people found this helpful

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MC Phillips

Very enjoyable early spy novel

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 9, 2020

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NO SPOILERS: I have been wanting to read the George Smiley novels for a while, and decided to read them in order, starting with Call for the Dead, and like other reviewers, I would recommend that you read the author's introduction before beginning this novel, especially if you are well-read in the spy genre. I'm not sure I can call myself well-read in this regard, but I've certainly read more than just a few, and I guessed the plot twist in this story almost from the beginning, but that did not diminish my enjoyment of the novel while following along to see if I was right. It is what I would consider a very "basic" spy novel - not too many characters, red herrings or misdirection, and not especially complex in the story line, but I would assume that the author ups his game in the ensuing novels of the series. Looking forward to Smiley novel #2!

3 people found this helpful

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Thad Brown

Prequel to Tinker Tailor

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 27, 2013

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Ah, it's a happy day when another le Carre book hits the Kindle market. This is, if I'm correct, his first novel of any kind, and while it's hardly his best work, it is still a good read. And we get to meet a younger Geroge Smiley, probably le Carre's best known character.

The plot of the book is classic murder/spy mystery. Someone suspected of wrongdoing is investigated. Same party shows up dead, apparently by suicide. But was it really a suicide? Who would benefit from this person being silenced? Would anyone be willing to kill for that silence? Is a trap being laid for the investigator himself? All of this is the meat and drink of almost everything le Carre wrote and it's all here in infant form.

If there is a knock on this book it would be that sometimes it seems it might have been published first in 1861, not 1961 as it actually was. Le Carre is hardly a formally experimental novelist when he _is_ being adventurous. This book is a little more Agatha Christie than anything he wrote later. And he's not trying any adventure at all in this one. Questions are discussed over claret and mince at 'the club.' Manly men like Peter Guillam (seen in later novels much more fleshed out) do manly things in manly places. Female characters, often something to recommend Le Carre in his later books, seem a bit flimsy here.

Still, it's a good read, and I have no problem recommending it. Maybe not the first book I'd recommend by le Carre, but if you're gone through some of the classic spy fiction you'll enjoy this one both on its own merits and as a bit of Cornwall ephemera to remind you where the man started.

3 people found this helpful

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RARowland, Cincinnati reviewer

A somewhat confusing tale until the end.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 29, 2017

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have read several books by this author, the most notable being "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold". That book was made into a movie starring Richard Burton.
I found in this book, like that of the others of this writer that I have read that I must read him closely as otherwise I must re read pages if I put the book down and come back to it later. Saying that as with other books I've read by other authors concerns me as fault of plot. Not so with Le Carre, but still just as uncomfortable because the story line doesn't stay with me. I don't re tell story lines my reviews. Suffice it to say, British espionage can be confusing to me. I somewhat suspect it is due to the idioms used in conversation. I can get around the meaning of some of it due to my British background, but still the story line gets diffuse at times because of the idioms used.
Still, LeCarre is a gifted writer in the espionage/counter espionage genre and I like reading him for that reason. It is just that once I pick up one of his books, I must compel myself to stay with it to the end, or suffer the consequence of going back and forth so as to keep what's going on in my minds eye.

2 people found this helpful

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Call for the Dead: A George Smiley Novel (George Smiley Novels Book 1)

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Call for the Dead: A George Smiley Novel (George Smiley Novels Book 1)

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