Customer Reviews

A Murder of Quality (Rediscovery Series)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This slim book is fascinating as an introduction to le Carre's earliest writing. It was written in the 60's and preceded by "Call For the Dead." Both books feature George Smiley but are not of the spy venue, but are more classic mysteries. His unfortunate marriage is referred to and there is a hint of the work he had done and is perhaps still doing in the spy field. But we must wait for future works to get a true taste of Smiley.

A murder in the prestigious private school, Carne, propels Smiley into a search for the murderer. There are many twists and turns and a dramatic denouement at the end. The story in all is quite dated but one must remember that it was written in the 60's.

As a fan of the later le Carre, I found the book interesting and really quite a neat mystery story but when you compare with his later work, it is quite innocuous. I am indeed grateful that he swerved to go into the espionage field and give us so many truly fascinating books.

Having first read Absolute Friends, by John LeCarre, I decided to go back to the beginning and read all of the author's works in chronological order. The first in the Smiley series was Call for the Dead. In that novel, we learn much about Smiley and get a glimpse into the world of spycraft. In the second Smiley novel, A Murder of Quality, spycraft takes a backseat to an average murder mystery. I look forward to reading the 3rd Smiley novel, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, because I expect that it will be continue in the same manner as Call for the Dead. I rated this book 3 stars as it is not a bad read. It is simply a read. Not great, not bad, but just a touch above average. This is not a knock on the author's style, as he is clearly gifted. This is more so a knock on a novel that lacks much suspense and intrigue. In a genre (the British Murder mystery) clearly dominated by the likes of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, P.D. James, Martha Grimes, and the like... this story pales in comparison. I would certainly suggest reading the book if you, like me, are interested in reading the entire Smiley series; however, I would temper your expectations if you are looking for an enthralling read.

A solid 3 stars.

A Murder of Quality is the second of LeCarre's novels that feature George Smiley. Unlike the others in the series this novel is not about the Cold War and espionage, at least not overtly. In this one; a woman with whom Smiley worked during the war contacts him. She publishes a small Christian paper and has a subscriber who fears that she will be murdered. Smiley investigates and eventually finds the murderer. It is a classic murder story but not a spy story or is it? I did find myself wondering why the paper was kept in business by the owners. Is it owned by British intelligence? There might be more to this murder mystery than meets the eye or perhaps not.

Smiley has to solve a murder and also face his wife's past. It's ironic that the basically decent and brilliant Smiley is considered unsuitable for his higher class but serially unfaithful wife. LeCarre includes much social comment about Britain as he leads Smiley to the solution of the crime.

Things are not what they seem and Smiley's investigations lead to truly nasty revelations. The twists, turns and betrayal that are LeCarre constants are present in A Murder of Quality. The reader gets to see the author as he is developing his craft.

A Murder of Quality is a murder mystery and perhaps LeCarre was considering pursuing this genre. Instead he reinvented the spy story incorporating seaminess and betrayal. A Murder of Quality shows us how deep his talents as a writer are.

I have just re-read a Murder of Quality - I read it for the first time last year in 2005. And, I have just read the reviews here on Amazon - which describe the book quite well. So, what will I add to them? Just the following points:

(a) This is a very slim volume - specially when you compare it to some of his other works - the Constant Gardner, Absolute Friends & the Tailor of Panama...

(b) It is one of his very early works - his second novel & published in the early 1960s. While reading it I understood that this was written just about 15 years after the end of the second world war in 1945 and one often comes across the shadow of the war, its events and effects...

(c) But it is gripping!!! The twists in the plot are great - each time one thinks 'Aha! So, she/he murdered her...' and each time there is a twist & the possible murderer changes... Reminiscent of a good Agatha Christie novel!

(d) The 1989 (?) introduction in the paperback edition is nice - one gets slightly closer to Le Carre & comes to know the author somewhat better.

(e) The school setting is great - it brings out very well the pettiness which one expects to find in a boarding school where masters stay on campus.

So, all in all a good read - not his best work & not comparable with his other more recent novels, but good nonetheless - it also gives a good sense of how his writing has evolved over the decades since a murder of quality was first published. My rating 3.5 to 4. Recommended, but only after one has read his other works...

In A Murder of Quality, George Smiley is contacted by an acquaintance at a small religious journal who had received a letter from an eccentric subscriber predicting that her husband would murder her. The momentarily retired Smiley, who has contacts at the school where the letter-writer's husband works, is commissioned to check after the matter. He travels to the school to find out that--surprise, surprise--the woman has been murdered. Of course, though, it's quite a tangle, and Smiley turns his mind toward untangling the mystery.

A lot of readers have noted that A Murder of Quality is unique in Le Carre's oeuvre. It's very much an English countryside mystery, complete with the brilliant outsider in to solve the case (ala Poirot and Marple), rather than a novel on the tortuous world of Cold War espionage. The thing that struck me about A Murder of Quality, though, was that it was a very fine British mystery. It sits on the shelf quite well with Christie's own impressive works. If I had read this without having read his espionage novels, I would be wanting to read all of Mr. Le Carre's mystery novels. It only sticks out because it's not like his other works, and it only pales at all because what Le Carre does, writing espionage novels, he has done better than anyone else ever has, and that has drawn toward him a little different kind of audience than would really be struck by and appreciate A Murder of Quality. But A Murder of Quality is a very good novel, a fine mystery for fans of them and a novel to help draw out George Smiley's character for Le Carre's more traditional audience.

"A Murder of Quality," (1963), was but the second novel published by British author extraordinaire John LeCarre, pseudonym of David Cornwell. It followed upon the heels of Call for the Dead and immediately preceded The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, the novel that was to make his name internationally. LeCarre, who had first hand experience of the spy business, was to continue to burnish his name with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and Smiley's People, among his many other publications. He has had a long life and a long writing career, and is still with us and still writing. He's a prolific, much-honored, best-selling author, largely of spy novels, at his best during the cold war years. During the 1950s and early 1960s, he worked for the British Secret Services: MI5 , which deals with domestic British matters; and MI6, which deals with international espionage. He then began writing novels under the LeCarre pseudonym as employees of those agencies were not allowed to publish.

"A Murder" is an astonishing achievement for a young writer so early in his career. It weighs in at a mere 150 pages (later on he will take 300 pages to get to the point), yet he gives us vividly, and full of spice, and malice, a tale of town and gown: the midlands town of Carne, and, as the English would call it - we'd call it a prep school - the famous and prestigious fictional public school of Carne seated there. He delivers Carne and its unhappy faculty on the page, and no wonder, as LeCarre spent two years teaching at Eton, arguably England's real-life most famous and prestigious public school, before joining MI5. LeCarre gives us the surrounding countryside, the transportation, the language, the seasons of these people, the weather in and geography of London. His writing is terse and witty, dialog snaps and crackles: one of his trademarks, the powerful set piece openings and closings, is already visible. The man was just born to write: he describes a "contrived suburban Gothic script," as an important clue.

Mind you, the murder(s) under discussion are nothing special. The wife of a teacher at the school writes to the advice column of a small magazine, claiming her husband is trying to kill her. The magazine's editor/chief cook and bottle washer used to work with George Smiley in the spy biz during the war: she calls on him, now retired, to play detective. But before he can get to Carne, the woman is, indeed, murdered. The plot does turn out to be rather humdrum, but the author delivers some excitement, subtle examination of character, moral substance. As with his novels of espionage, moral ambiguity defines the central characters: there's no simple right or wrong, it's a morally complex place. But there is a murderer.

Most of all, this book gives us a glimpse into LeCarre's developing fictional world. We meet the policeman Rigby, and hear mention of Mendel. And we meet the author's internationally famous fictional character, the full-blown Smiley, already married to Lady Ann and suffering through, already living in Bywater Street. At one point, Smiley muses 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."

Somewhat later the author will remark, "Smiley himself was one of those solitaries ....Obscurity was his nature, as well as his profession. The by-ways 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."

This, my friends is the Smiley we will soon meet in the author's later works. He will certainly possess the cunning of Satan; and every now and then he will demonstrate the tender conscience of a virgin, though Alec Leamas won't see much of that characteristic in "The Spy." It's an invaluable book for the author's fans.

A Murder of Quality is John Le Carre's second published novel and also the second to feature his best known character, George Smiley.
The first, Call for the Dead is an intelligently crafted murder mystery which plays out against the backdrop of Cold War espionage. A Murder of Quality is also a murder mystery or "whodunit" but the backdrop is a boy's school for Britain's uppercrust located in the pastoral English countryside far away from London or any other city of any size.

Smiley's background in British intelligence is alluded to and does play a small role in the storyline. But this is not a spy novel. The book's plot would not have been significantly altered had Smiley's background been in police work, the military, journalism or a host of other occupations.

Briefly stated, A Murder of Quality is about the mysterious, violent death of one Stella Rode, the wife of a junior faculty member at the aforementioned boy's school. The book's value lies not so much in the mystery it presents as in Le Carre's evocative description of British academic life and the conflicts, prejudices and arcane customs inherent to such an environment. Of interest to anglophiles, especially those fascinated by England's institutions and it's finely tiered class system.

This book follows Call for the Dead, but is more of a murder mystery than a spy novel. There are surprises as the truth is uncovered, layer by layer, but ultimately, the story is not as compelling as his other works. Very little light is shed on the Smiley character.

The book begins with the talk of the schoolboys at Carne School which tells about their life. The conversation among the teachers presents another side of school days. Fielding reflects over his career with cynicism. Then a letter arrives at the 'Christian Voice'. Stella Rode wrote to the advice column about her fear of being killed. Miss Brimley took the letter to George Smiley. When they called a friend at Carne they learned Stella had been murdered after her letter was mailed! Smiley will take the letter to the Carne police. There were footprints leading into the house, but not leaving (a recent snowfall). The background descriptions tell about life in a country town. Smiley meets Fielding, the brother of an old dead friend. The conversations tell about the teachers at Carne. There was a curious incident with Stella's dog - it had been destroyed just before the murder. When Smiley looked over the Rode's house he saw Janie - with an old overcoat!

The small talk among the people at Carne tell about their lives and carry the story forward. This brings out facts about the murdered Stella. Smiley asks Miss Brimley to check a parcel sent to London; she finds some clothing (Chapter XIV). A student went missing, then was found dead. Smiley learns something about the student's scholarship. Chapter XIX has new revelations about this case! The last chapter wraps up the loose ends of this case.

You may note the improvements in the plot since his first novel. It has a surprising ending that seems to contradict the earlier chapters. Most murders are for love or money. This story combines the motives.

Its a wonderful read! This George Smiley book is of the classic mystery genre. Although the mystery and story itself are quite subdued, there is a lot more to the book than the plot itself. Le Carre is severly critical of the English private school organization and to me it read more as a diagnostic of problems with the organization with a very finely crafted story as the veneer.

If you end up liking this one "Smiley's People" is one you will enjoy even more...perhaps his best work.