The spy who Came in From the Cold

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Call Number: BOCD Mystery
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	BOCD Mystery	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"With tracks every 3 minutes for easy book marking"--Container.
Narrated by Frank Muller.
A veteran spy wants to "come in from the cold" to retirement. He undertakes one last assignment in which he pretends defection and provides the enemy with sufficient evidence to label their leader a double agent.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

bleak, very bleak submitted by camelsamba on August 3, 2017, 8:47pm This is le Carré’s third novel, and the first that really belongs in the spy genre. It’s set in the heart of the cold war, in Berlin and East Germany. It’s bleak. Our main character, Alec Leamas, is ready to retire after spending years running spies in Germany. However, the service wants him to take on one more mission, in an attempt to bring down the East German intelligence operation. A long series of events gives the impression of a broken man and leads him to the enemy, with them thinking he is ready to turn his back on everything he believed in. Once in their clutches, things do not proceed as had been planned and he is placed in more peril than anticipated. Once in East Germany he is called upon to testify against his nemesis - but then he ends up on trial himself.

It’s considered one of the best in the espionage genre, very 'literary.' It highlights how both sides in the espionage game tend to view the ends as justifying the means. You’re never really sure who to trust, who is telling the truth, who can be believed. It’s bleak, though - very, very bleak. The ending just about ripped me.

I recently listened to the narrated by Michael Jayaton (also owned by AADL, and available through overdrive). Frank Muller is a better narrater though, so get this one if you can!