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A Murder of Quality (George Smiley #2)

3.48 of 5 stars 3.48 · rating details · 2,213 ratings · 198 reviews

John le Carré's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international esionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him -- and his hero, British secret Service Agent George Smiley -- unprecedented worldwide acclaim. George Smiley was simply doing a favor for Miss Ailsa Brimley, and old friend and editor of a small news...more

Paperback, 160 pages

Published January 29th 2002 by Scribner (first published 1962)

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The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré

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Mar 31, 2011 James rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime, fiction

Started off brilliantly but ended with a whimper, as the ending felt contrived and unrealistic. I think as the author himself put it not bad as a social satire but weak as a thriller.

The story starts when a colleague of Smiley contacts him to help with a letter she has received from a reader of the magazine she edits. As Smiley gets more involved all the great ingredients you find in le carre`s book are there - great characters minutely observed, a taste for the depressing england of the post w...more

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Jun 15, 2013 M.J. Fiori rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: spy

Not a George Smiley espionage thriller, but rather a Smiley-tackles-a-regular-old-whoddunnit. As such, this novel lacks nearly all of the exciting enigma that makes up Smiley's Cold War world--the world of the cipher-cloaked, ritualistic international spy life. In his introduction, inserted later, le Carre talks about this exercise in the closed-room murder mystery genre as a novel of manners. The society under the microscope here is that of a British boarding school prone to over-asserting its...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Zakariah Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars

The second book featuring spymaster George Smiley, A Murder of Quality, is essentially a cozy. In it, the apparently retired Smiley is called in to investigate a murder at a second-rate upper-crust boarding school where class considerations prevent the local police from asking indelicate questions of high-placed people. Through this set-up, the story simultaneously takes aim at two oft-derided cultures--the fading British class system and the catty world of second-rate academia. Though this time...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Tom Marcinko rated it 4 of 5 stars

JLC's second novel, like his first, a fairly straightforward murder mystery, but beautifully constructed and observed. This one's set against academia.

~It was a peculiarity of Smiley’s character that throughout the whole of his clandestine work he had never managed to reconcile the means to the end. A stringent critic of his own motives, he had discovered after long observation that he tended to be less a creature of intellect than his tastes and habits might suggest; once in the war he had been...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'd heard of this as a minor le Carré novel, but as there's only a limited number of 'em I thought I should go back and read it. Unlike the other Smiley books this is not about espionage at all, but is a fairly straight-forward murder mystery. It's pretty efficient and functional as those things go, with clues and red herrings and a cast of plausible murderers. The actual resolution wasn't perfectly satisfying, but overall it was pretty well crafted.

If you (like me) really enjoy the Smiley nove...more

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Aug 25, 2012 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars

My husband is quite a fan of John LeCarre and convinced me that I should read this one. It is a small novel (146 pages) compared to his later books of 300 or more pages and a little mystery instead of a cold war spy novel. Not being the greatest fan of a mystery novel (I tend to read them too fast, or peek at the ending - because I can't stand the suspense -- or I'm up until the wee hours of the morning because I can't go to sleep until I find out "who did it"), I was surprised how much I enjoye...more My husband is quite a fan of John LeCarre and convinced me that I should read this one. It is a small novel (146 pages) compared to his later books of 300 or more pages and a little mystery instead of a cold war spy novel. Not being the greatest fan of a mystery novel (I tend to read them too fast, or peek at the ending - because I can't stand the suspense -- or I'm up until the wee hours of the morning because I can't go to sleep until I find out "who did it"), I was surprised how much I enjoyed this one, managed to read it slowly and thoroughly enjoyed the author's writing. I think I enjoyed LeCarre's writing even more than the mystery.

Example: "Smiley himself was one of those solitaries who seem to have come into the world fully educated at the age of eighteen. Obscurity was his nature, as well as his profession. The byways of espionage are not populated by the brash and colourful adventurers of fiction. A man who, like Smiley has lived and worked for years among his country's enemies learns only one prayer: that he may never, never be noticed. Assimilation is his highest aim. He learns to love the crowds who pass him in the street without a glance; he clings to them for his anonymity and his safety. His fear makes him servile --- he could embrace the shoppers who jostle him in their impatience, and force him from the pavement. He could adore the officials, the police, the bus conductors, for the terse indifference of their attitudes.

"But this fear, this servility, this dependence, had developed in Smiley a perception for the coulour of human beings; a swift, feminine sensitivity to their characters and motives. He knew mankind as a huntsman knows his cover, as a fox the wood. For a spy must hunt while he is hunted, and the crowd is his estate. He could collect their gestures and their words, record the interplay of glance and movement, as a huntsman can record the twisted bracken and the broken twig, or as a fox detects the signs of danger."

I may have to read another LeCarre novel.

(less)

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Aug 03, 2012 Jesse Adler rated it 5 of 5 stars

Inspired by a talk on the flow of non fiction to fiction by amazing writers, journalists and ex intelligence consultants at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival I started on the classic British spy / crime series by John La Carre.

A Murder of Quality is the second George Smiley book. It's a gentle yet eerie view of elitist private boy schools in England. He has beautifully captured the snobbishness and small mindedness that kept such institutions both respected and feared for generations.

He pai...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Paul Curd rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-and-mystery, fiction

Carne School, with its cloisters and woodworm and a line in the Doomsday Book, is one of the Great Schools, where the rich send their sons to be instructed. And it is from Carne that Miss Ailsa Brimley, editor of the small Christian Voice newspaper, receives a letter for the paper’s problem page. The writer of the letter is Stella Rode, the wife of one of the school’s junior masters. Previously, Stella had written about cake mix for the ‘kitchen hints’ competition. This time, she asks for help b...more Carne School, with its cloisters and woodworm and a line in the Doomsday Book, is one of the Great Schools, where the rich send their sons to be instructed. And it is from Carne that Miss Ailsa Brimley, editor of the small Christian Voice newspaper, receives a letter for the paper’s problem page. The writer of the letter is Stella Rode, the wife of one of the school’s junior masters. Previously, Stella had written about cake mix for the ‘kitchen hints’ competition. This time, she asks for help because she fears her husband intends to kill her during the ‘long nights’.

Miss Brimley decides not to go to the police (reasoning that if Stella Rode had wanted that she would have gone herself). Instead, she consults her former colleague from the war-time secret service, the retired agent George Smiley. By this time, of course, Stella has indeed been murdered. Smiley takes the letter down to Carne, promising Miss Brimley to make sure it arrives quickly in the right hands. When Smiley speaks to the investigating officer, Divisional Superintendent Rigby, he discovers there is a ‘big gap between the Town and Gown’, a gap which seems to prevent the police investigating the murder fully. Smiley offers to help out by making his own discreet enquiries.

As with the first Smiley novel, A Murder of Quality explores the post-Second World War class system through the eyes of the recently-retired Smiley. And even more than Call for the Dead, this is a pure murder mystery with not a single spy in sight. In setting, it is more like an Inspector Morse mystery, in delivery more like Agatha Christie or Marjory Allingham. In execution, though, A Murder of Quality falls below the standard of these crime specialists. I found the ‘set up’ chapters a little pedestrian, and the characterisation a little flat, so I had trouble differentiating between the suspect dons and their wives. I also found the plot a bit creaky, and there’s less tension than one would like or expect from a story of this kind. But remember, this was only le Carré’s second book, and he was still learning his craft. There is some excellent writing in here, and flashes of the sort of thing that is to come later in his career.

All in all, A Murder of Quality is a bit of an oddity, and only recommended if you’re a Smiley (or le Carré) fan. But it’s an easy, entertaining diversion, nevertheless.

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Mar 08, 2011 Michaelsean rated it 3 of 5 stars

One of my guilty pleasures is reading good ol’ fashioned cold war espionage novels. While not long on traditional literary value, I find them to be eminently enjoyable. Over the years I have read a great many of John le Carre’s more notable works but hadn’t really dove too deep into his back catalog. With that in mind, I ordered A Murder of Quality recently and gave it a go.

Originally published in 1962, A Murder of Quality is a slightly divergent effort from what I was accustomed to from Mr. Le...more

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Aug 23, 2010 rabbitprincess rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like Le Carré

Recommended to rabbitprincess by: browsing on dad's bookshelf

Shelves: borrowed, elementary-school

From the Grade 6 reading log files (yes, I read this in Grade 6. Doesn't everybody read spy fiction at that age?):

"The author is trying to tell everyone the truth about the spy world. The truth is not like James Bond-style, but it is very low-class and dangerous. The enemy might be staying at the same HOTEL as you, so trust nobody. He describes everything in perfect detail, so it feels like you're actually there, watching it all happen. His language is also very realistic too. Like Shane Hecht w...more

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Jul 22, 2009 Travis rated it 4 of 5 stars

I just checked this out from the library for some light reading during a trip, thinking it was the only Le Carre I hadn't read--only to discover a few pages into it that I had read it after all. So, I read it again.

I'm a real fan of Le Carre's spy novels (especially "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy,.." and "The Night Manager," most of which handily transcend the genre and wrestle with deeper issues in much more sophisticated ways than do the works of any other writer of spy fiction save Graham Green...more

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Apr 28, 2011 Helen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Smiley as Miss Marple, solving the brutal murder of an unpopular teacher's unpopular wife at an upper class prep school, predating The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. This book takes place fifteen years after the end of World War II, a time when England's sharply divided classes merged to fight against a common enemy. The plot explores the ragged edges between town and gown, between ordinary people and Gentlemen, and the awful people to whom these things matter.

Fran...more

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Sep 02, 2011 Iain rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The second of the George Smiley novels. This is a departure from the murky world of cold war espionage as Smiley is asked by a friend to investigate a murder.

The novel follows the classic set up of an english murder story - a sleepy english village, traditional public school, snobbery, gossip and an unassuming amateur sleuth who deduces the indentity of the perpetrator. This is murder by numbers and could have been written by any english crime writer be it Agatha Christie or Margery Allingham. T...more

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Jan 14, 2009 Nicole Marble rated it 5 of 5 stars

An awful murder in the English countryside. A prestigious school. George Smiley of 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold' fame. The plot is properly complex, the clues abundant and misleading, and Smiley solves the case. But there is an aftertaste to this book - the overwhelming feeling that murder is such a tawdry thing, just plain depressing.

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Jul 10, 2012 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-suspense-mystery

http://philadelphiareviewofbooks.com/...

Gary Oldman can’t help making George Smiley look svelt, even behind the coke bottle glasses and brown suits Tomas Alfredson put him in for last year’s film adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. But those of us who’ve read the novels behind the suspenseful screen spy games know George Smiley is fat and middle-aged and rumpled beyond any hope of charisma.

Le Carré used Smiley as the perfectly hapless foil for not only his spy thrillers but also for cozy En...more

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Aug 19, 2011 Arun Divakar rated it 3 of 5 stars

A very alluring fact about a murder mystery in a secluded setting is the close border that tranquility shares with terror in such a backdrop. There have been a lot many books in such environs : set in villages, monasteries, small towns, factories and so forth. The murderer could be someone you know and the motive could have been something you saw or heard but overlooked. It takes a lot of literary talent to pull off such a plot line & Le Carre in this book does not aim specifically for succe...more

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Mar 17, 2012 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars

On a Le Carre kick lately and decided to pick up a very early Smiley book by him. This is not really a spy story--Smiley's profession is simply the framing device and way of getting into the murder mystery. The driving impetus behind the book, as Le Carre says in the preface, is a deep revulsion toward British boarding schools, which he communicates exquisitely well. The book is witty, bitter, and probably worth reading just for the scathing portraits and acidic commentary. As a murder mystery,...more

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Jan 06, 2012 Kathryn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am almost ashamed to admit that I had not read any John le Carre books up to now, though I do have a few on my shelf, and I know of his writing skills. I picked this book up at a charity book sale in the fall to read and pass along to an elderly aunt. Now that the movie based on his book - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - is coming out soon and has some great pre-reviews - I needed to find out a bit about Smiley, so this has done the trick as background. I have seen 2 other movies based on his book...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Jim Leckband rated it 3 of 5 stars

Le Carre's Smiley is dropped into a world where double-crossing and deceit are a way of life, where nothing is quite what it seems, where a kind word on the surface means a dagger under the belt, where your best friend is your worst enemy. A place where conformity to a social superiority either means an unsettled detente or banishment.

Totalitarian Russia? A forgotten Iron Curtain country? Mao's China or Vietnam?

Nope. English public school.

"A Murder of Quality" has no spies in it. Smiley is calle...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Anabelle Bernard Fournier rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller

You should certainly not read John le Carré's second novel and decide that you like him or not based on it. I actually liked Call for the Dead more than A Murder of Quality, and that for a number of reasons.

First: I must admit I had to constantly remind myself that this happens in the 1960s rather than in the 1880s. Sure, I may be skewed because I am still a Victorianist at heart, but except for the random mention of a car or a bus or phones, it really could have happened in Victorian England. T...more You should certainly not read John le Carré's second novel and decide that you like him or not based on it. I actually liked Call for the Dead more than A Murder of Quality, and that for a number of reasons.

First: I must admit I had to constantly remind myself that this happens in the 1960s rather than in the 1880s. Sure, I may be skewed because I am still a Victorianist at heart, but except for the random mention of a car or a bus or phones, it really could have happened in Victorian England. The society it represents--the teachers of a private school in a small down in southern England--is very much a relic of that era. The obsession with status, the desire to move up in the world through "good families", doing what is "proper" for one's class, all very Victorian values. Maybe le Carré meant to build a strange world separated from the reality of the breakdown of the traditional British class system, but it left me confused more than anything else.

Second: The characters, except for Smiley, are pretty much cardboard figures. I felt no connection with the victim, or the murderer, or any other character. Although we had decent characterization in Call for the Dead, A Murder of Quality leaves nobody to remember. There were so many occasions to explore relationships between all the pretentious House masters of the school and their wives, but all we end up with is a shadow of a society, like some ombre chinoise without depth or color.

Third: The mystery itself wasn't very interesting. It seems like le Carré decided one person would be the murderer, then changed his mind and made someone else the murderer at the end of the book. Somehow, there was no build-up to the discovery. It just kind of happens. The ending is anything but surprising... and when it came, I didn't care that much.

To be fair, le Carré was still learning his craft. I think this book is simply an indifferent step towards an otherwise stellar career. As far as I know, this book is one rare hiccup for le Carré--and he picks himself up by his prize-winning third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

So, skip this one unless you really want to read *everything* le Carré wrote. You definitely won't miss it.(less)

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Mar 30, 2012 Bruce Snell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Book 2 in the George Smiley series by John le Carre. Smiley has retired and is asked by a former associate to investigate a murder at the Carne School in which the victim had written a letter several days earlier accusing her husband of wanting to kill her. Smiley works with the local police to interview several people associated with the school and members of the victim's family. During the course of the investigation, we see how the class system affects the daily lives of everyone involved, an...more

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Jun 06, 2013 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars

"... But for the rest, for the puzzled little clerics and the blind little soldiers, for them the truth of Carne is written on the wall, and they hate us." (7)

She used to think of him as the most forgettable man she had ever met; short and plump, with heavy spectacles and thinning hair, he was at first sight the very prototype of an unsuccessful middle-aged bachelor in a sedentary occupation. His natural diffidence in most practical matters was reflected in his clothes, which were costly and uns...more "... But for the rest, for the puzzled little clerics and the blind little soldiers, for them the truth of Carne is written on the wall, and they hate us." (7)

She used to think of him as the most forgettable man she had ever met; short and plump, with heavy spectacles and thinning hair, he was at first sight the very prototype of an unsuccessful middle-aged bachelor in a sedentary occupation. His natural diffidence in most practical matters was reflected in his clothes, which were costly and unsuitable, for he was clay in the hands of his tailor, who robbed him. (16)

It was a peculiarity of Smiley's character that throughout the whole of his clandestine work he had never managed to reconcile the means to the end. A stringent critic of his own motives, he had discovered after long observation that he tended to be less a creature of intellect than his tastes and habits might suggest; once in the war he had been described by his superiors as possessing the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin, which seemed to him not wholly unjust. (73)

D'Arcy wouldn't have liked the way he said that; cocksure lad on a motorbike. Pencils in the outside pocket. (75)

Smiley himself was on of those solitaries who seem to have come into the world fully educated at the age of eighteen. Obscurity was his nature, as well as his profession. The byways of espionage are not populated by the brash and colorful adventurers of fiction. (77)

But this fear, this servility, this dependence, had developed in Smiley a perception for the colour of human beings: a swift, feminine sensitivity to their characters and motives. He knew mankind as a huntsman knows his cover, as a fox the wood. For a spy must hunt while he is hunted, and the crowd if his estate. He could collect their gestures and their words, record the interplay of glance and movement, as a huntsman can record the twisted bracken and the broken twig, or as a fox detects signs of danger. (77)

"You know, Fielding," he said at last, "we just don't know what people are like, we can never tell; there isn't any truth about human beings, no formula that meets each one of us. And there are some of us - aren't there? - who are nothing, who as so labile that we astound ourselves; we're the chameleons... The people who are like that - there really are some, Fielding - do you know their secret? They can't feel anything inside them, no pleasure or pain, no love or hate; they're ashamed and frightened that they can't feel. And their shame, this shame, Fielding, drives them to extravagance and colour; they must make themselves feel that cold water, and without that they're nothing. The world sees them as showmen, fantasists, liars, as sensualists perhaps, not for what they are: the living dead." (148)(less)

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Dec 23, 2011 Esdaile rated it 2 of 5 stars

I was disappointed by this book. It promised well-a whodunnit in a Public School, written by Le Carré. To be successful, a whodunnit must combine strong characterisation with plausibility and involvement. Well, charcaterisation was strong but I found motive implausible and interest level fairly weak. I finished it only a week ago and already have nearly forgotten it so far that I am unable to relate the story. The motive for murder struck me as wildly implausible. All the time the book read for...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Andre rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don’t know what happened with A Murder of Quality. The author, John le Carré, did not construct a story nearly as good as his first novel, Call for the Dead. He was more ambitious this time around and, in the end, a little careless. The story is not tight.

My biggest problem with le Carré’s is that he hates women. He very obviously hates women. It was evident in Call for the Dead, and it really shines through in the opening of A Murder of Quality. He is so in-your-face with his hatred for women...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Durdles rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime

No doubt this is complex and beautifully plotted but I just couldn't warm to it. It's a rather cold whodunnit set in the early 1960s in a claustrophobic and strangely unsettling town dominated by a Church of England Public school where snobbery and tradition make this particular world as alien to us now as any foreign country could be. George Smiley is enigmatic and very dry as he probes the murder of a teacher's wife that she had predicted in a letter to a church newspaper. The lighter touches...more

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May 29, 2012 Meagan rated it 4 of 5 stars

The second Le Carré novel was another gem. I found it equally compelling as the first, yet entirely different. Gone are the super-secret spies, but in their place is a world of secrecy built by the people that make it up. It’s another very quick read, not a wasted word, something that lends itself to the buildup of suspense. I found myself continually wondering who committed the murder at the center of this story. Not only who, but why. The characters in this story were shadowed by their world....more

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Oct 12, 2012 Darwin8u rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Not le Carré's finest, but that is like saying here a minor Faulkner, a good-effort Chandler or even a throwaway Conrad. A Murder of Quality finds George Smiley out of his element (although to be absolutely fair, Smily IS defined by always being just a little out of his element). Instead of in an espionage thriller, he is dropped by le Carré into a boys school murder.

It is as if, with his second novel, le Carré is wondering whether spy fiction or detective fiction should be his future calling....more

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Jul 07, 2012 Victoria (Eve's Alexandria) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime, library, thriller

I picked this up at the library in an attempt to break a reading drought. I so enjoyed Call for the Dead earlier this year. I could have gone for a later better known le Carre but you know me, everything has to be read in order.

We're back with Smiley, the retired intelligence officer with a perfect talent for merging into the crowd. This time though he's displaced from London into setting and plot straight from Midsummer Murders. There has been a murder at a prestigious boarding school and Smile...more

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Mar 27, 2013 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This short mystery novel was Le Carre's second, written while he was still a member of British Intelligence. It has nothing to do with spies, except retired ones who get involved in the investigation of the wife of a master at a school for sons of the rich and powerful.

The writing is beautiful. Le Carre already had found the understated, intelligent tone that typifies his work. His satirical portrait of the faculty and spouses at this fancy school is amazingly wrought. Gosh, I hope never to mee...more

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Oct 16, 2010 Eileen rated it 3 of 5 stars

One of John LeCarre's early books, this murder mystery profiles British Secret Service Agent George Smiley solving a murder at an ENglish boy's school. LeCarre describes Smiley as "one of those solitaries who seem to have come into the world fully educated at the age of eighteen. The byways of espionage are not populated by the brash and colorful adventurers of fiction. A man who, like Smiley, has lived and worked for years among his country's enemies learns only one prayer: that he may never, n...more

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About John le Carré

John le Carré, the pseudonym of David John Moore Cornwell (born 19 October 1931 in Poole, Dorset, England), is an English author of espionage novels. Le Carré has resided in St Buryan, Cornwall, Great Britain, for more than forty years where he owns a mile of cliff close to Land's End.

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Books by John le Carré

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (George Smiley, #5)

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (George Smiley #3)

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“All men are born free: just not for long.” — 4 people liked it

“Smiley himself was one of those solitaires who seem to have come into the world fully educated at the age of eighteen. Obscurity was his nature, as well as his profession. The byways of espionage are not populated by the brash and colourful adventurers of fiction. A man who, like Smiley, has lived and worked for years among his country's enemies learns only one prayer: that he may never, never be noticed. Assimilation is his highest aim, he learns to love the crowds who pass him in the street without a glance; he clings to them for his anonimity and his safety. His fear makes him servile - he could embrace the shoppers who jostle him in their impatience, and force him from the pavement. He could adore the officials, the police, the bus conductors, for the terse indifference of their attitudes. (ch. 9)” — 1 person liked it

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A Murder of Quality (George Smiley #2)

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