Call for the Dead (1961) and A Murder of Quality (1962), le Carré's first two novels, are mystery fiction, in which retired spy George Smiley investigates a pair of deaths- first the apparent suicide of a suspected communist, and then a murder at a disreputable public school. Although Call for the Dead evolves into an espionage story, Smiley's motives are more personal than political. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), became an international best-seller and remains one of his best-known works; following its publication, he left MI6 to become a full time Writer. Although le Carré intended Spy as an indictment of espionage as morally compromised, audiences widely viewed its protagonist, the alcoholic spy Alec Leamas, as a tragic hero; in response, le Carré's next book, The Looking Glass War, was a satire about an increasingly deadly espionage mission which ultimately proves pointless.
