Call for the Dead

George Smiley, an intelligence officer and the central person in the novel, is called to the headquarters of MI 5, Britain`s Secret Service, because Samuel Fennan, his friend and colleague, has been found dead, laving a suicide note. During his investigation of Fennan`s death - Smiley suspects it is murder - he is himself nearly killed by, presumably, foreign secret agents. The novel dramatically builds up to the final climax in which Smiley is confronted with Dieter Frey, his former student and friend and his fellow agent in the fight against the Nazi German war machine, their common enemy in World War II. Call for the Dead is a very clever study of the personal struggle in Smiley`s mind caused by the clash between the values of personal friendship and loyalty towards his country.