The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

I picked up ‘The Spy Who Came In From The Cold’ looking at its ratings and because it’s also written by John Le Carre who is author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Published in 1960s, the book’s style reminded me of that of Sherlock Holmes’ books.

It’s a cold war story about a veteran British intelligence spy Alec Leamas who goes ‘over the wall’ to East Germany to kill an enemy spy. The storyline is pretty straightforward in the first half. Leamas fakes the betrayal of British Intelligence and uses that to get in touch with Communist spies and uses that to infiltrate East. In the second half however there are lots of twists to the seemingly straightforward mission and the book ends with an even dramatic scene. The narration kind of assures you of a certain path going forward but takes unexpected turns which made it a very gripping read!

Characters in the book are described to the point. We get all the necessary information to understand them, but there’s nothing descriptive that does not relate to the main theme strongly. You of course meet Leamas, his boss and chief of intelligence - Control, a communist girl Lisa and Leamas’s target Mundt and his colleague Riemeck and that’s pretty much it.

The story progresses at a fast pace and I didn’t find lengthy descriptions of events or prolonged discussions among the characters. This makes it a comparatively quick read of 200 pages. Given bit of old-styled writing and predictable storyline in the first half, I got an impression of the book being overrated, but by the time I reached the end I knew it was worth the hype and ratings! Overall a very fun experience.