Book summary

The quintessential Cold War thriller, John LeCarre's TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY introduced the term "mole"--meaning a spy who has burrowed so deeply into his cover identity that it's nearly impossible to dig him out and expose him--into common parlance. In fact, LeCarre says, British intelligence began using the term after their operatives read this novel. The book launches a new sequence in LeCarre's series about British Intelligence (aka the "Circus"), in which British spymaster George Smiley prepares to confront Karla, his opposite number in the KGB.