A satisfying entry into the world of George Smiley's Cold War.

"Karla's Choice" opens in 1963, around six months after the events of "The Spy Who Came In from The Cold", and the operatives of the Circus are still feeling the effects of Leamas' death. George Smiley has retired and is trying to rebuild his life with his wife, Ann. However, when a Russian assassin attempts to defect, claiming he is unwilling to kill his target, Control entices him back one last time, in order to track down the target, with the help of his secretary.

What follows is a complex tale of plans within plans, plots within plots and past events influencing the present, as Smiley and his team travel across Cold War Europe in search of the missing man. The prose is fairly dense in places, with complex reflections on who did what, and when, and why, but the story moves along at a respectable pace. What is slowly revealed is a decades-old story of a boy, who grew up to be a dangerous man, and it's this which holds everything together. Reading it, there's sufficient echoes of le Carré’s writing to satisfy fans. Seemingly random events slowly merge into the bigger picture, as Smiley digs deeper into the past. There's also the ever present reminder of what a dirty and heartless thing the Game is, and how easily lives are sacrificed for the greater good. Smiley spends a lot of time reflecting on his part in Leamas' death.

All the characters from TSWCIFTC and TTSS are present, including Guillam, to Esterhase, Connie and Haydon. Mundt is also back in play, and Karla, of course, although it's three-quarters of the way through the book before he is mentioned. The characters play out as they did in the original books, so there should be no complaints on that score.

A lengthy foreword by the author attempts to explain how the book came about and how much of the story came from le Carré himself. As the author himself admits, the book will divide readers - fans of le Carré will claim perhaps that things were best left as they were, others will applaud the attempt to expand the story of George Smiley and his dark world. "My Smiley", he says, "is my father's, but also the Smiley we collectively inherit".

However, the marketing of the book - "Karla's Choice - A John le Carré Novel by Nick Harkaway and John le Carré" seems overly complex and confusing. I'm sure die-hard fans would prefer a simple "based on the characters created by Karla's Choice John le Carré". It's certainly those die-hard fans who will make or break this book - while it's probably not essential to have read "Spy" or "Tinker", it's those who have who will gain most from it.

I approached this book with trepidation as I have read a number of books claiming to be the best le Carre and as a fan, have been disappointed.

This was different. As an avid reader of John le Carre’s works, there were times, whilst reading that I forgot he was not the narrator. The plot was as circuitous as le Carre’s spy books,but at the same time intriguing. There were some things that clashed with my mental image of Smiley, such as driving a car whilst being pursued by police, however this is a minor cavil.

All in all, a very good book, and as I did with the Karla trilogy I shall re-read it soon.