John le Carre's second novel is an ingenious puzzle featuring his best-loved character George Smiley. Now available in a collector's hardback edition.

Stella Rode has twice disturbed the ancient cloisters of Carne School: firstly by being the wrong sort, with her doilies and china ducks, and secondly by being murdered. George Smiley, who has his own connection with the school, is asked by an old Service friend to investigate. Smiley knows that Stella feared her husband would murder her, but as he probes further beneath Carne's respectable veneer, he uncovers far more than a simple crime of passion. In his second George Smiley novel, le Carre moves outside the world of espionage to reveal the secrets at the heart of another particularly English institution. The result is a pitch-perfect murder mystery, with Smiley as master detective.

THE SECOND GEORGE SMILEY NOVEL

'Beautifully intelligent, satiric and witty' Daily Telegraph

A Murder of Quality Reviews

A book of rare and great power * Financial Times *
A devastating and tragic record of human, not glamour, spies * New York Herald Tribune *

About John le Carre

John le Carre was born in 1931. For six decades, he wrote novels that came to define our age. The son of a confidence trickster, 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 Carre 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 12 December 2020. His posthumous novel, Silverview, was published in 2021.

Additional information

Sku

NGR9780241337127

ISBN 13

9780241337127

ISBN 10

0241337127

Title

A Murder of Quality by John le Carre

Author

John le Carre

Series

The Penguin John le Carre Hardback Collection

Condition

New

Binding type

Hardback

Publisher

Penguin Books Ltd

Year published

2019-06-06

Number of pages

192

Prizes

N/A

Cover note

Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.

Note

This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time