I think that this novel is not as good as its predecessor, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, but I think I liked elements of it more. I appreciated le Carre's focus on a slightly more shoddy and realistic approach to intelligence work that sold the entire experience for me better in many ways than the previous book. It's a nice reminder that things can go wrong in very mundane ways as well as spectacular ways, I guess. Overall recommend reading both as a way to juxtapose the two styles to writing espionage thrillers.