The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carre

Some organization named this book the best spy novel of all time and so I bought it a couple years ago. Picked it up recently and read it in a few short days. You'll notice there's no photo of the book - that's because the edition I have is from 1965 and I couldn't find an image of the cover - in fact, pieces of the cover were flaking off and pages falling out of my edition. It made it easier to remember that when the book was written it was during the Cold War era and the Berlin Wall, which plays prominently in the story, was a reality of the times.

The story is about a spy who is disgraced when the post he covers is compromised. He goes to meet his boss ostensibly to be fired, but he is asked to complete one more mission and then retire. This book is about his last mission - a mission to ruin the cover of a double agent.

The writing is simple but kept me at the end of my seat. I thought the first half of the book was good but not too complex then I came to a point in the book when I realized I had no idea what as going and I had to flip back about 10 pages. The climax is a worthwhile payoff and the denouement not a disappointment.