In this brooding thriller, novelist Nick Harkaway --- who is John le Carré’s son --- sets out to recreate George Smiley and his world in the years between THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (1963) and TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY (1974). He admits at the beginning of the book that he was wary about taking this on, but he didn't have to worry: KARLA’S CHOICE is a welcome addition to the canon.

Those who have read, and remember, the earlier books will be happy to be reacquainted with the British intelligence “Circus” characters --- from Smiley himself (now a “consulting ex-spy”) to the ever-enigmatic Control, the Hungarian Toby Esterhase and the charming Bill Haydon…and, of course, Connie Sachs, the former Russian analyst turned researcher.

"As is true of le Carré’s novels, there is plenty of rumination, complex relationships and pithy writing.... If you aren’t already a fan, KARLA’S CHOICE may tempt you to go back to the original Smiley or, at the very least, the Alec Guinness evocation."

It’s 1963, two years after the construction of the Berlin Wall. In le Carré’s earlier novel, the British agent Alec Leamas and his lover are killed as they attempt to climb to freedom. In KARLA’S CHOICE, everyone --- especially Smiley --- is mindful of this event and the betrayal that led up to it. “When Alec Leamas’s ghost was at his shoulder,” Harkaway writes, “he wanted above all to show that the brutal passages of his recent life were an aberration and not his underlying truth.”

The story begins with Susanna Gero, a Hungarian émigré who is working at the London literary agency run by Laszlo Bánáti, being confronted by a would-be killer who is looking for her boss. He has been sent by the Russians to kill him but has had a change of heart. Through various connections, she brings him to the Circus and soon finds herself racing through Europe with Smiley and others in search of her erstwhile boss, who turns out to be a Soviet agent known as Róka.

As is true of le Carré’s novels, there is plenty of rumination, complex relationships and pithy writing. In the Circus, “you could feel that you were in some ways part of something, some enormous sleeping mystery that was the greater cause, that gave meaning to failure as well as success.” As he settles into retirement, there’s a rumor “unconfirmed and a little scandalous --- that George Smiley might almost be happy.” But when summoned, he returns to, as his wife says, his “grey mistress.”

As for Karla, he lurks in the background, always the presence that keeps Smiley moving forward. Readers of le Carré know how that will play out in later books. If you aren’t already a fan, KARLA’S CHOICE may tempt you to go back to the original Smiley or, at the very least, the Alec Guinness evocation. Meanwhile, it’s good to have him and his Circus back on stage.