Call for the Dead by John Le carre

I was one of the lucky ones - not reading a Biggles book until quite recently. Biggles was the xenophobic, misogynistic hero of numerous books by someone called Capt. W. E. Johns and he was forever crouched over an ops table or fighting savages in some far -flung part of the British Empire between the wars.
Reading this early Le Carre ( the author was 30 when it was published) evokes memories of Biggles.
Spies George Smiley and Peter Guillam join forces with an Inspector Mendel in an awkward little whodunnit involving the death of a spy. and not a desirable woman in sight. Smiley's fat and brilliant and the other two are what they are. The writing shows promise of what is to come but the long ending is like reading this (still short) novel all over again