A Murder of Quality: A George Smiley Novel

This novel is Le Carre at his best. The character he created, George Smiley, is the perfect detective. Smiley solves this case in his ususl methodical manner, taking great pains to conduct his investigation in a manner that brings the reader to the same conclusions as the detective. A "don't miss" for the Smiley fan.

Real good book. Smiley helps investigate a murder through getting to know the people in the town and having conversations with them. It's pretty cool the information he is able to extract without any real interrogations or having any real authority. Even though it's not spy work it's an interesting view into the art of gathering intelligence nonetheless.

I chose this rating because the quality is exactly what I expect from me Carte. It was precise writing. Sometimes the English references are too difficult to understand easily,b it overall I enjoyed the read

Typical Le Carre---beautifully written, and with a cracking good plot. Familiar scenes from school common-rooms and all-too recognisable characters in those staff-rooms made this book alive and credible. Add to all of this the character of George Smiley, and you have a book which is most difficult to put down.

Great read, the second of Le Carré George Smiley series, further fleshes out George Smiley character and motivations. A must read if you're interested in the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy series of books. An espionage classic.

Seemed more like a writing exercise to further explore smiley's character by putting him into a civilian setting, than a real and rigorous le carre novel.. But still a decent read. Not bad but nowhere near his other novels.

Excellent starting point for the George Smiley books.
It's the first book John le Carré wrote, and the first George Smiley book.
I'd forgotten what an excellent writer John le Carré is.
You will go through it quickly, and then want to jump into the next book.
Try not to stay up all night (reading).

John le Carre's second book, A Murder of Quality, is, like his debut, Call for the Dead, a standard-issue murder mystery featuring le Carre's most famous character, George Smiley. But while Call for the Dead at least had an international intrigue angle, Murder of Quality is right out of the Agatha Christie songbook with no real espionage implications. In fact, I could see Hercule Poirot substituting in for Smiley in this plot, which is decent as these things go, and the solution is clever if a bit obvious and convoluted. But then, so are many of Christie's.

Briefly, Smiley gets hooked into helping investigate the death of the wife of a teacher at a posh boys school. His role, like that of Poirot in many of Christie's books, is that of unofficial adviser to the investigation, but while Poirot is a natural for this as a former master detective, Smiley's credentials are far more flimsy and le Carre has to put his thumb on the scale to come up with a plausible reason for Smiley being allowed to meddle in what should be an official inquiry.

Le Carre must have realized the limitations to this direction for his character, and I'm glad he soon made his way into the genre where he would make his name, the spy vs. spy stuff launched with his next book, the celebrated The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.

That being said, this isn't a bad mystery and anyone interested in getting the full le Carre and Smiley should eventually get to A Murder of Quality (as well as Call for the Dead) to see how le Carre initially envisioned his most famous character.

This novel, possibly borne out of a young author's identity crisis, is most un-Smiley of all. The spy we all got to know later is a full-time detective with few of his famed qualities on display. The story is a standard small-town whodunit murder mystery. 1960's small English town settings and crisp writing keep it engaging. With nothing of relevance for the rest of the Smiley series nor anything remarkable to stick in the memory, here is a work to be enjoyed for a lazy afternoon reading. Any more expectations because of the author's or the protagonist's names would cause severe disappointments.

I was surprised and delighted to come across a recommendation for this novel in a blog devoted to Golden Age (1920s - 1940s, mostly British) mysteries. I've always felt a bit guilty because I really don't like le Carre's novels, though I can see that he writes well. Espionage just doesn't appeal to me. So it was a special pleasure to read this classic whodunit set at Eton (disguised as "Carne") and featuring a plucky London spinster worthy of Sayers's Miss Climpson!

This spinster, known as Brim, edits a small Christian magazine, and the mystery begins when she receives a letter, in her capacity as a Dear Abby-like advice giver, from a young woman of good family who confides that her husband is trying to kill her. Brim doesn't hesitate to call on her old friend George Smiley, who decides to make inquiries. Before he can even pack a bag for Carne, however, he learns that the young woman has indeed been murdered -- and the husband couldn't have done it! The mystery is launched.

Full of period details and great atmosphere, A Murder of Quality is richly satisfying for readers who have savored other school whodunits such as Who Killed Calloway?, Gaudy Night, and the more recent Well-Schooled in Murder. The writing is understated and elegant, the clues satisfying, and the characters decently sketched. Highly recommended.

In this book, the second novel written by John Le Carre and the second appearance of his bland but perceptive ex-spy George Smiley, Stella Rode, the wife of a young master at the Carne School is violently murdered in her home following a dinner party at the home of another master. The police suspect a local madwoman who’s gone missing but when George Smiley gets involved through his old intelligence community connections he goes to Carne to investigate and discovers a community standing apart from the local town and peopled by a tribe with their own ways, their own customs, and their own prejudices.

The portrait drawn of the school and of its community of Carnians is rich and fully realized. Carne is an ancient, traditional, isolated and prestigious boarding school for boys. It’s unique culture is the product of hundreds of years of development. The murder victim and her husband were outsiders and while Stanley Rode made an overly enthusiastic effort to fit in his wife did not. Smiley’s investigation introduces him to several of the other masters and their wives, along with a dog breeder, the local minister, and police. His investigation consists mostly in hanging around the school. He attends the victim’s funeral ostensibly so he can write a short obituary about her and he also gets himself invited to sherry with one of the masters. Through his unobtrusive presence he’s able to put together psychological portraits of all the possible suspects and in reconstructing the recent past of the victim through his interviews with Carnians he also reconstructs the social structures of Carne, its unwritten rules, the jealousy and the slights, the competitions and the alliances.

In spite of his claim not to know what people are like, Smiley seems to solve the mystery through a kind of psychological penetration aided by a few clues taken from the physical evidence. Through his nondescript near-anonymity he’s able to get over the wall separating Town and Gown and get to know these people of Carne and by knowing them he knows which one has murdered.

This novel carefully captures the boarding school environment with its rugby matches and world-weary teachers and draws on this setting to create the mystery of a murder investigation. The psychological portraits of all the characters are sharply drawn and even some of the minor characters have as much flavour, depth and characterization as what you would get from another writer’s major heroes and villains. Besides being a literate novel exploring the psychology of class distinctions and the status of being an insider among a community, A Murder of Quality is also a great mystery with some surprising twists, a memorable detective and a lively investigation.

An uneven and confusing small novel in which George Smiley solves the murder of a tutor's spouse at Carne school, a snobby sort of institution that le Carré makes no secret of despising. In fact, that emotion overhangs the entire book, which is more of a cathartic outlet for the author whose public school days when he was a pupil have deeply scarred his psyche, than an entertainment for the reader.

None of the characters other than Smiley and his female "sidekick," Ailsa Brimley, are likable. Too often they're stereotypical stand-ins for actual characters, as in the case of Felix D'Arcy, the homosexual colleague of "poor little Rode," the social lesser, grammar school-educated, public school wannabe tutor whose wife, Stella, is the murder victim. Despicable Stella, we learn, has a nasty hobby of terrorizing people at Carne with her knowledge of their embarrassing secret pasts. It is this nasty personality trait that gets her murdered. Another unlikeable "Carney" is Terrence Fielding, the younger and diminished brother of one of Smiley's WWII espionage cohorts who is much admired by Smiley, and who died in heroic service to his country. It is hard to imagine the misogynistic, acidic, classist pederast that Fielding is could ever have been Adrian's brother.

Sufficient red herrings, and an additional murder remind us how much we always enjoyed Agatha Christie, but lackluster action, overall dull and flat writing, and an inexcusable melodramatic ending make us grateful that George Smiley gave up police procedural attempts and eventually returned to espionage. And that goes for le Carré, too. There are solid hints of the master-of-espionage-novels-in-waiting, however. One great line that foretells the quality that is to become consistent with his name is in reference to Smiley, ". . .once in the war he had been described by his superiors as possessing the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin. . ." Great stuff!

This is the second novel featuring George Smiley; the first is Call for the Dead: A George Smiley Novel. This is unlike most of the Smiley books, in that it is really a classic crime story, much in the style of an Agatha Christie. Set in an exclusive boarding school, Carne School in Dorset, this is obviously something which the author feels strongly about, admitting that he spent much of his life from the age of five (so young!) in such institutions, as well as teaching at Eton.

In this book, Smiley is contacted by Miss Ailsa Brimley, who he knew from the war. She works at a small magazine, the Christian Voice, which has a loyal and long standing readership. One of the readers, who has subscribed since the beginning, is Stella Rode - now a wife of one of the masters at Carne. When she contacts the letters page to say she fears her husband is trying to kill her, Miss Brimley takes it seriously and turns to Smiley. However, when he investigates, he finds that Mrs Rode was killed the previous evening, in a vicious attack at her home.

This is an unusual novel in the Smiley series, but well worth reading if you enjoy crime and mystery books and also offers insights into the character of George Smiley - as the area where the story is set is the one in which his wife, Ann, grew up. It also has an interesting setting and Miss Brimley is an excellent character, as are the snobbish and tradition bound masters at the school. If you wish to read on, the next book is the classic The Spy Who Came in from the Cold: A George Smiley Novel (George Smiley Novels).

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.

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.

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.