Tags
Last night I finished another novel by John Le Carré to bring the total up to thirty-nine. July might be the month that I get back up to speed. I am still eleven books behind where I need to be, but am making progress.
A Murder of Quality is John Le Carré’s second novel and again features the understated protagonist George Smiley. Although Le Carré is known as a spy novelist, this book is a straightforward mystery. A murder occurs under suspicious circumstances, and Smiley investigates as a favor to a friend. His occupation in the British Secret Service is a footnote to the story. The murder is set against the backdrop of Carne, a fictional elite boarding school along the lines of Eton or Harrow. Le Carré does an excellent job satirizing the obsolete class structure of 1960’s Britain (that some would argue persists to this day). While it doesn’t rise to the level of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, A Murder of Quality is well worth reading.
The Current Count:
39 Read, 61 To Go
1 Year, 100 Books 