Book Log 2017 #43: A Legacy of Spies by John LeCarre

After writing some of the most iconic spy novels of the Cold War era, LeCarre managed to move on from East versus West, still dipping a toe into espionage while moving into new territory with new villains. He largely left George Smiley and his colleagues behind, until this book brought the new and old together.

The new intelligence regime in the UK is looking back at what the old guard did in the past, and is starting to call them to account. In this case, one of Smiley's former lieutenants, Peter Guillam, is hauled back to MI6 to answer questions about the events that unfolded in The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, as the son of one of the people involved in the operation at the center of that book is suing the British government.

The book bounces between the events leading up to what happened in the earlier book and Guillam's current attempts to dodge responsibility for what happened. It's not only a great callback for long time readers, but an interesting commentary on modern intelligence. It was also apparently written to help make a case for the UK staying in the EU in the wake of the Brexit referendum, which I didn't get at the time. Absolutely worth reading, though if for some reason you haven't read The Spy Who Came in From the Cold you may want to do that first.