call for the dead is john le carré's first novel, published in 1961. it introduces george smiley, the most famous of le carré's recurring characters, in a story about east german spies inside great britain. it also introduces a fictional version of british intelligence, called "the circus" because of its location in cambridge circus, that is apparently based on mi6 and that recurs throughout le carré's spy novels. "call for the dead" was filmed as "the deadly affair," released in 1966.