# John LeCarre **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 5, 2002, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre/102042 "2002-04-05T18:43:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre/102042/1 "2002-04-05T18:43:03Z")
I’m a big LeCarre fan. Can anyone recommend another writer of espionage fiction that has the same realistic plots and character development? I don’t like Tom Clancy, but what about Deighton, any LeCarre fans who like Deighton? Also, anyone know the proper pronunciation of his pen name? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre/102042/2 "2002-04-05T20:28:38Z")
You may also like Martin Cruz Smith - his most famous book is Gorky Park. The pronounciation is le Car·ré. [Cite](http://www.bartleby.com/61/57/L0095700.html). ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre/102042/3 "2002-04-05T20:32:20Z")
leh-cah-RAY (AFAIK) As for comparables, it really depends on your taste - no one seems to capture the literate, realistic, complex world that LeCarre does… ---
**Author:** ![quarx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/50afbb/32.png) [@quarx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quarx)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre/102042/4 "2002-04-05T22:26:19Z")
IMHO, no one will ever match John LeCarre’s character development or his hero, George Smiley, but Frederick Forsyth has done some interesting things with this genre. Check out **The Fourth Protocol** for some good character and plot development ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre/102042/5 "2002-04-05T22:33:44Z")
Charles McCarry ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre/102042/6 "2002-04-05T22:58:12Z")
You and I seem to enjoy some similarity of tastes **madmonk**. I also enjoy Le Carre and don’t like Clancy, but did enjoy most of Len Deighton’s. So I think there is a good chance that you will like him. I echo **Dooku’s** suggestions of the early Martin Cruz Smith. There is a Smileyness to it. I also might suggest Harris’ _Fatherland_. The ones after that were a let down but it was good. Of course there are the genre classics like Graham Green and Eric Ambler. I especially enjoyed Ambler’s _Coffin for Dimitrios._ ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre/102042/7 "2002-04-05T23:19:39Z")
Alan Furst. ---
**Author:** ![jcgmoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@jcgmoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jcgmoi)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre/102042/8 "2002-04-06T01:43:30Z")
Early Deighton is very good, IMO. _Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin, Horse Under Water_ are first-rate stories, although as **WordMan** noted, not comparable to LeCarre’s in their explorations of moral ambiguity. Still, Deighton seems to know a hell of a lot about the structure of espionage units, his plots are properly confounding, and his style is frequently pointed and sardonic. In later career Deighton wrote novels with a more military slant, and in the 80’s he cranked out some padded trilogies that frankly didn’t appeal to me at all, but his best is pretty damn good. Another guy I enjoy a lot is Robert Littell. He’s darker in tone than Deighton, and often writes from an Eastern European perspective, but _The Debriefing, The Amateur, The Sisters, Mother Russia_ will satisfy. In the one-off category try _Moscow Magician_ by John Moody. ---
**Author:** ![flyboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4da419/32.png) [@flyboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flyboy)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre/102042/9 "2002-04-06T04:04:20Z")
I’ll second **quarx’s** recommendation for Frederick Forsyth. I’ve read all his work, and my favorite is the Fist of God. After reading him, I realized how much I didn’t like LeCarre. I’ll also put in a plug for Nelson DeMille, although I can’t say he really keeps to the spy thing. ---
**Author:** ![Fyodor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/958977/32.png) [@Fyodor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fyodor)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre/102042/10 "2002-04-06T05:32:23Z")
I’m a big LeCarre fan too and I would recommend Phillip Kerr’s “Berlin Noir”, a trilogy. Kerr has churned out a few mediocre pop thrillers but some of his stuff, “Dead Meat” for example, really shines, and Berlin Noir was a dark, complex, and profound thriller. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre/102042/11 "2002-04-06T15:02:39Z")
There’s a couple of [**Graham Greene**](http://members.tripod.com/~greeneland/) novels you might like. Le Carre’s _Tailor of Panama_ is explicitly a homage to Greene’s _Our Man in Havana_. That’s a comedy, but much of Greene’s work is pretty grim stuff, so if you appreciate the “harsh choice in a hollow world where a man of principle will be mostly destroyed in pursuit of largely pyrrhic victories if he’s lucky” aspect of Le Carre, you will find it in spades in Greene’s _The Heart of the Matter, The Power and the Glory_ and others.