The Looking Glass War

John le Carré's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him unprecedented worldwide acclaim. THE LOOKING GLASS WAR Once upon a time the distinction had been clear: the Circus handled all things political while the Department dealt with matters military. But over the years, power shifted and the Circus elbowed the Department out. Now, suddenly, the Department has a job on its hands. Evidence suggests Soviet missiles are being positioned close to the German border. Vital film is missing and a courier is dead. Lacking active agents, but possessed of an outdated mandate to proceed, the Department has to find an old hand to prove its mettle. Fred Leiser, German-speaking Pole turned Englishman -- once a qualified radio operator, now involved in the motor trade -- must be called back to the colors and sent East.... From Publishers Weekly Le CarreÌü's fourth George Smiley novel is handsomely dramatized in this BBC Audio production. Early in the 1960s the cold war is in full swing, and the Department, a holdover from the WWII section of British intelligence, forms an uneasy alliance with its rival agency, the Circus, when it is suspected that Soviet missiles may be in the process of being placed along the West German border. Death, lies, betrayal, secrets, secrets, and more secrets all add up to the kind of rich espionage story fans have come to expect from le CarreÌü. Though this production, by necessity of time, is forced to leave out much of the book on which it's based, the dramatization captures the essence of the material, and the actors expertly brings their characters to life and are supported with excellent production values. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review Publishers Weekly A bitter, bleak, superlatively written novel. Financial Times (U.K.) A book of rare and great power. An experienced agent is mysteriously killed on a freezing night near a foreign airport. Thus begins an intricate mission of military espionage that brings together three desperate men.The zealot, the pawn, the string puller: each seeks a different kind of glory, each risks the thing he values most, each is caught up in a double-sided game that carries him from London to Berlin -- and from treachery, to betrayal, to cold-blooded murder."Le Carre is simply the world's greatest fictional spymaster." -- Newsweek A satire about an incompetent military espionage organization trying to regain its former glory by attempting to verify a Communist defector's story of a Soviet missile buildup in East Germany. While still funded by Whitehall, the organization is losing ground against the Circus which is more professional and more organized, as well as more successful. Focuses on a former military espionage department in London and its attempts to train an agent for a mission in East Germany