A Legacy of Spies

“You remember the first rule of retirement, George? No moonlighting, no fooling with loose ends, no private enterprise, ever. You remember who preaches this rule, at Sarratt, in the corridors? George Smiley did. Quote, “When it's over, it's over. Pull down the shutters, go home,” unquote. We're over, George. We've got no license. They don't want us anymore.”

So says Toby Esterhase in Smiley's People. Old spies, old betrayals, these are the subject of LeCarré's latest novel, A Legacy of Spies, where the ghost of Smiley (for this is a book of ghosts - spooks, if you will) hovers in the background. In the foreground is Smiley's trusted lieutentant, Peter Guillam. Now retired and living on a small holding in Brittany, Guillam suddenly finds himself summoned back to London to face the new corporate inquisitors of the shiny new Secret Service. For there is a lawsuit accusing the Service of orchestrating the deaths of Alec Leamas and Liz Gold in a botched mission to East Berlin at the height of the Cold War (the subject of LeCarré's breakthrough novel The Spy Who Came In From The Cold) and Guillam is being set up as the scapegoat.

LeCarré is on top form here, skillfully weaving a narrative that serves as both a prequel and sequel to TSWCIFTC, while examining the loyalties and motivations of those who spy for a living. Guillam is forced to go through the secret case files of Operation Windfall, reliving the recruitment and later extraction of a female agent, codename Tulip, who is in a position to supply top level intelligence from the Stasi. So, in flashbacks to the late 50s, we learn of the friendship between Guillam and Leamas, the first suspicions of a high level mole in the Service (who would later come to grief in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), the machinations of Control and Smiley in their efforts to place their own mole in the Stasi. Guillam has to find a way to give them what they want without incriminating himself. Easier said than done when your world has only ever been shades of grey.

The modern day stuff is well crafted too, the two Service corporate lawyers being particularly nasty creations. We also meet Leamas's illegitimate son, Christoph, who, along with Liz Gold's daughter, has brought the lawsuit against the service. Christoph is a damaged individual, dangerous and unpredictable. Guillam is caught between a rock and a hard place.

It's brilliant stuff, exposing the moral quandaries that Smiley negotiated for “the greater good”. Guillam realises that a noose is slowly tightening around him, that he is going to be sacrificed to save the Service's face, unless he can find a way out. Find Smiley. If he can.

A real return to form for LeCarré and a novel to stand with and compliment his classic Cold War stories. Highly recommended.