Smiley's People is a
spy novel by
John le Carré, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy
George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy", following
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and
The Honourable Schoolboy. George Smiley is called out of retirement for the last time to investigate the death of one of his old agents: a former Soviet general, the head of an
Estonian émigré organisation based in London. Smiley learns the General had discovered information that will lead to a final confrontation with Smiley's nemesis, the
Soviet spymaster
Karla.