History Literature / TheSpyWhoCameInFromTheCold

* SoftSpokenSadist: Leamas observes that Mundt has a surprisingly pleasant voice, and Mundt never shouts during their interrogation. In CallForTheDead, he's also polite to [[spoiler:George Smiley during their one face-to-face meeting, after which Mundt nearly kills Smiley]].

* TheBadGuyWins: At the end of the book, thanks to [[spoiler:Control]], [[spoiler:Mundt]] has [[spoiler:utterly destroyed Fiedler's evidence against him]], [[spoiler:Fiedler]] is probably going to be executed, and to tie up lose ends, [[spoiler:Liz and Leamas have been shot dead trying to cross the Berlin Wall]].
** It gets worse. [[spoiler: The 2017 novel ''A Legacy of Spies'' reveals that shortly after Mundt is summoned to Moscow and is never seen again, implying that the mole uncovered in ''Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'' blew him to the KGB]].

* BreakTheCutie: Poor Liz.
* CastingGag: Bernard Lee, who played M in the Film/JamesBond series (which Creator/JohnLeCarre's work was a deliberate refutation of) here plays a grocer who's beaten up as part of a highly amoral operation.

* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: When Leamas sees Liz's dead body]].

* TheMole: [[spoiler:Hans-Dieter Mundt.]]

* NecessaryEvil: Both Control and Fiedler regard their whole profession as this. [[spoiler:Leamas seems to as well in the ending, but who knows if he really believes it.]]

* SpyDrama: A TropeCodifier for the Stale Beer version.
* [[SuicideByCop Suicide by Border Guard]]: [[spoiler:Leamas lets the ''Volkspolizei'' shoot him after he sees that Liz is dead]]. Judging by TheReveal about [[spoiler:Mundt's true allegiance]], and the sentries' reluctance to fire despite having a clear shot, it's possible that [[spoiler:only Liz was supposed to die]].

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Fiedler in East German intelligence is a True Believer in Communism. He acts as a foil to Mundt, who works for whichever side is on top at the time.
* WorthyAdversary: Fiedler again. They get on very well together and like each other as people, though Leamas has the duty to feed him false information.

* MurderByProxy: Alec Leamas's mission is to [[FakeDefector pretend to defect]] and frame [[spoiler: Fiedler]] of treason, knowing full well that the East Germans will execute him. When Liz calls Alec a killer, he doesn't deny the accusation.

* CommieNazis: Mundt is a former Nazi who joined the Communists. Judging by the way another minor East German character disparages Jews, he isn't the only one.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Mundt and Control]] have won, [[spoiler:Fiedler is probably going to be killed, Mundt has arranged Liz's death, and Leamas lets the East German ''Grenztruppen'' kill him out of despair]]. The later CerebusRetcon makes it even worse! [[spoiler: Control's plan ''didn't'' work out - Haydon gave Mundt to the KGB.]]

* MurderIsTheBestSolution: This is Mundt's MO. He was already a ruthless killer in ''Call for the Dead'', and he hasn't changed in this book. Once takes over the Stasi, he starts summarily executing any Western agent that his men catch in East Germany, and even sends assassins into West Berlin to kill any who might've gotten away. It works: he annihilates Britain's spy network in Berlin, forcing Leamas to return to England in disgrace. [[spoiler:He's doing this because he knows that if Fiedler ever captured one alive, his role as a double agent might get exposed.]]

A [[TheFilmOfTheBook screen adaptation]], directed by Martin Ritt and starring Creator/RichardBurton as Leamas, was released in 1965.

* SequelDisplacement: Far better-known than its direct predecessor, ''Literature/CallForTheDead''.

''The Spy Who Came In from the Cold'' is the third novel by Creator/JohnLeCarre, published in 1963.

* CommieNazis: Mundt is a former Nazi agent, who joined the Communinsts.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Having [[spoiler: a former Nazi]] working for the protagonists, and [[spoiler: the Jewish character]] working for the antagonists, is rather uncomfortable-though, of course, this ties in to the GreyAndGrayMorality of the story, as Leamas notes that really, neither side is better than the others.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: [[Literature/TheQuestForKarla George Smiley]] gets the occasional mention, helps to spring Control's trap for the East Germans, and appears in maybe one or two scenes.

* ShellShockedVeteran: It doesn't impair Leamas's functioning, but he served as a British commando during World War II, saw some ghastly things, and occasionally has flashbacks.
* SoftSpokenSadist: Leamas observes that Mundt has a surprisingly pleasant voice.

-> Our work, as I understand it, is based on a single assumption that the West is never going to be the aggressor. Thus, we do disagreeable things, but we're defensive. Our policies are peaceful, but our methods can't afford to be less ruthless than those of the opposition, can they? You know, I'd say, uh... since the war, our methods - our techniques, that is - and those of the Communists, have become very much the same. Yes. I mean, occasionally... we have to do wicked things. Very wicked things, indeed. But, uh, you can't be less wicked than your enemies simply because your government's policy is benevolent, can you?

* LateArrivalSpoiler: The novel mentions the twist of ''Call For The Dead'' quite casually a number of times: ([[spoiler:that Elsa Fennan, not Samuel, was the spy, and that Mundt was the murderer.]])

After the death of a number of British-run agents in East Berlin, SIS officer and head of Berlin station Alec Leamas is recalled to London by the head of the service, Control. When Leamas refuses a demotion, Control then suggests to him a plan to bring about the downfall of Hans-Dieter Mundt, the agent of East German Intelligence responsible for the death of Leamas's agents. But the mission is not what it seems...

Reflecting the cold and somewhat inhuman nature of intelligence work in the early days of the Cold War, the novel suggests the uncomfortable thought that the difference between the Western intelligence agencies and their opponents was very little indeed, with both resorting to underhanded methods to achieve their aims.

* TheBadGuyWins: At the end of the book, [[spoiler:Control]] has helped [[spoiler:Mundt]] to [[spoiler:utterly destroy Fiedler's evidence against him]], [[spoiler:Fiedler]] is probably going to be executed, and to tie up lose ends, [[spoiler:Liz and Leamas have been shot dead trying to cross the Berlin Wall]].

* BatmanGambit: Control's plan for dealing with Mundt rests on the assumptions that Fiedler [[spoiler:hates Mundt and will jump at the opportunity to bring him down]], that the East Germans distrust the British so much that [[spoiler:if the Circus outs Mundt as a British double agent, the Stasi will readily suspect that it is a frame-up]], and that Fiedler [[spoiler:as a Jew will be mistrusted by the still-antisemitic East German authorities]].

* CastingGag: Bernard Lee, who played M in the Film/JamesBond series (which Creator/JohnLeCarre's work was a deliberate refutation of, showing what the job of a spy is really like) here plays a grocer who's beaten up as part of a highly amoral operation.

** Mundt [[spoiler: didn't just escape at the end of ''Call For The Dead'', he was turned. Peter Guillam even went behind Smiley's back to do it.]]
** ''A Legacy of Spies'', which serves as a distant sequel to this book, takes it even farther - [[spoiler: after Alec's death, Bill Haydon exposed Mundt as a mole and he disappeared. The entire operation was pointless in the long run.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: A couple of times during Alec's "breakdown" a short, round, sad-looking man is mentioned as being nearby. It's [[Literature/TheQuestForKarla Smiley]].

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Mundt and Control]] have won, [[spoiler:Fiedler is probably going to be killed, Mundt has arranged Liz's death, and Leamas lets the Volkspolizei kill him out of despair]]. The later CerebusRetcon makes it even worse! [[spoiler: Control's plan ''didn't'' work out - Haydon gave Mundt to the KGB.]]
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: George Smiley [[spoiler:appears a lot less humane and quite ruthless in his supporting role. The novel does explain that he's left the Circus due to moral issues, and that Control has left him in the dark over the nastier aspects of this particular mission.]]

* IconicSequelCharacter: Control, [[TheChessmaster ruthlessly cunning]] head of the Circus, makes his first appearance in this book, replacing Maston from the previous novels.
* ImprovisedWeapon: Leamas manages to kill a man with a ''wooden matchbox''.
* InformedAttribute: We hear (Leamas's POV) that Fiedler is "a savage little bastard" who nearly tortured at least one captured British agent to death, but he is unfailingly courteous to Leamas. His behavior towards Leamas is justified, however, because he sees Leamas as a potential [[spoiler:weapon to use against Mundt]].
* KansasCityShuffle: See the aforementioned BatmanGambit. The East Germans expect British subterfuge and the Circus knows that [[spoiler:Fiedler is on to Mundt]], so Control [[spoiler:sets up a sham mission to expose Mundt as a British asset and then blows the lid on the operation]], letting the East Germans think they've outfoxed the Circus when in fact [[spoiler:this leaves Mundt free to keep spying for the British, and more secure than he was before.]]
* LateArrivalSpoiler: The novel mentions the twist of ''Call For The Dead'' quite casually a number of times ([[spoiler:That Elsa Fennan, not Samuel, was the spy, and that Mundt was the murderer.]])
* MayDecemberRomance: Leamas is in his late forties or early fifties and has a divorce under his belt. Liz Gold is an early 20's librarian.

* MoralMyopia: Liz/Nan lays into Leamas for his amoral mission having killed a man. Leamas throws back at her that her beloved Communists have quite a bit of blood on their hands.
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: This is Mundt's MO. He was already a ruthless killer in ''Call for the Dead'', and he hasn't changed in this book. Once he assumes command of the Stasi, he starts summarily executing any Western agents that his men catch in East Germany, and even sends assassins into West Berlin to kill any who might've gotten away. It works: he annihilates Britain's spy network in Berlin, forcing Leamas to return to England in disgrace. [[spoiler:He's doing this because he knows that if Fiedler ever captured one alive, his role as a double agent might get exposed.]]

* [[SuicideByCop Suicide by Border Guard]]: [[spoiler:Leamas]] lets the ''Volkspolizei'' shoot him after he sees that [[spoiler:Liz is dead]]. Judging by TheReveal about [[spoiler:Mundt's true allegiance]] and the sentries' reluctance to fire despite having a clear shot, it seems that [[spoiler:only Liz was supposed to die]].

* UnreliableNarrator: Not in this story, but the story inflicts one on Le Carre's first Smiley novel, ''Call for the Dead''. In the previous novel, the primary antagonist, [[spoiler:Mundt]], is mentioned as having escaped capture and returned to East Germany. In this novel, TheReveal is that [[spoiler:Mundt was in fact captured and turned into a double agent]].
* UnwittingPawn: Basically everyone to TheChessmaster, Control. [[spoiler: Alec's mission was always intended to end in failure, he was intended to meet Liz from the beginning (though their falling in love was neither planned nor strictly necessary) and Control and Mundt never intended for Liz (the only possible loose end) to leave East Germany alive. It's even left unclear whether George Smiley knew about that last part.]]

''The Spy Who Came In from the Cold'' is the third novel by Creator/JohnLeCarre.

[[TheFilmOfTheBook A screen adaptation of the novel]] starring Creator/RichardBurton as Leamas and directed by Martin Ritt was released in 1965.

[[quoteright:338:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/top_10_berlin_wall_movies_the_spy_who_came_in_from_the_cold_5325.jpg]]

* TheBadGuyWins: At the end of the book, [[spoiler:Control]] has helped [[spoiler:Mundt]] to [[spoiler:utterly destroy Fiedler's evidence against him]], [[spoiler:Fiedler]] is probably going to be executed, and [[spoiler:Liz and Leamas]], the only potentially troublesome loose ends, [[spoiler:have been shot dead trying to cross the Berlin Wall]].

* TheMole: [[spoiler: Mundt.]]

* MurderIsTheBestSolution: This is Mundt's MO. He was a ruthless killer in ''Call for the Dead'', and the habit has stuck once he assumes command of the Stasi: he starts summarily executing any Western agents that his men catch in East Germany, and even sends assassins into West Berlin to kill any who might've gotten away. It works: he annihilates Britain's spy network in Berlin, forcing Leamas to return to England in disgrace. [[spoiler:He's doing this because he knows that if Fiedler ever captured one alive, his role as a double agent might get exposed.]]

* MurderIsTheBestSolution: This is Mundt's MO. As soon as he assumes command of the Stasi, he starts summarily executing any Western agents that his men catch in East Germany. He even sends assassins into West Berlin to kill trivial agents like couriers, who wouldn't seem to warrant such risky operations. [[spoiler:He's doing this because he knows that if Fiedler ever captured one alive, his role as a double agent might get exposed.]] Thanks to the prequel novel, we know that he's personally murdered a number of people in Britain too.

* NotSoDifferent: This was one of the first commercially successful novels to say so about the UsefulNotes/ColdWar.

* ReverseMole: [[spoiler: Mundt.]]

* CaliforniaDoubling: Many of the Berlin scenes were filmed in Dublin. The Checkpoint at the beginning is Dublin's Smithfield Market.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: Not quite, but the book comes close. While the German Democratic Republic is depicted as a brutal, soul-crushing regime, the Circus is willing to do some very nasty things.