Stella Rode has twice disturbed the ancient cloisters of Carne School: firstly by being the wrong sort, with her doilies and china ducks, and secondly by being murdered. George Smiley, who has his own connection with the school, is asked by an old Service friend to investigate. Smiley knows that Stella feared her husband would murder her, but as he probes further beneath Carne's respectable veneer, he uncovers far more than a simple crime of passion. In his second novel, le Carré moves outside the world of espionage to   reveal the secrets at the heart of another particularly English   institution. The result is a pitch-perfect murder mystery, with George  Smiley  as master detective.

THE SECOND GEORGE SMILEY NOVEL

'Beautifully intelligent, satiric and witty' Daily Telegraph