Kerry,
Re your question below:
"My question would be, what crime is committed in The Spy Who
Came In From The Cold? (Seriously, it's been a long time
since I read it.)"
In the opening chapter, Leamas's informant is murdered
through the machinations of the villain, East German
Intelligence chief Mundt.
Prior to the opening scene, virtually all of Leamas's network
has been murdered (not just arrested and held for trial, but
murdered) by Mundt.
As for the "conventions of mystery," your term for a
traditional whodunit plot, many spy novels are built around
fair-play puzzles, Le Carre's TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY being
perhaps the most famous example.
Others include every entry in William DeAndrea's Clifford
Driscoll series (which, tellingly, was published by the
Mysterious Press, a whole publishing company, not just a
line, that specialized in crime fiction) and Robert Littell's
THE COMPANY.
I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt by even responding to
this, but a part of me still doesn't believe you really mean
this to be a serious discussion.
JIM DOHERTY
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