Charles Mccarry - Author
Charles McCarry established an international reputation with the publication of his worldwide bestseller The Tears of Autumn in 1975 and altogether wrote 10 critically acclaimed novels. During the Cold War he was an intelligence officer operating under deep cover in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Maxim Jakubowski's November 2015 Book of the Month. Veteran thriller writer McCarry returns with a poignant spy tale of mixed loyalties, betrayal and the collapse of political idealism in which the conflict between the power of love and revenge anchors a complex plot in reality and fate. Deeply scarred by the CIA's earlier betrayal of his father, a devious but bright American spy determines to get his own back and when he falls hard for the beautiful daughter of a famous Argentinian revolutionary it soon becomes unclear who is manipulating who and where feelings become calculations. The complex tale covers much of the geopolitical struggles in the Middle East and South America of the past decades and quickly transforms into a breathless love story allied with a devious spider's web of a thriller. Adding such a fragile human element to a Le Carre-like deviousness makes this a terribly bittersweet read in which a master storyteller chronicles the secret world and anchors it in a melancholy reality. Like a spear to the heart. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
A fast, easy read of espionage and duplicity featuring a new recruit who may or may not become a double agent for or with the Chinese. You know the sort of thing. It’s all very complicated, secretive and colourful. Set largely in China where the author, an ex-CIA agent, served, it’s tautly written and presumably reasonably authentic. Good fun.
A Maxim Jakubowski selected title.Often seen as the American Le Carre, McCarry is an understated spy thriller writer who seldom puts a foot wrong. Although his new novel does not feature his eponymous Christopher family, it does not disappoint, a jigsaw puzzle involving Chinese intelligence and a murky branch of the US apparatus, in which no characters are black or white or who they appear to first be.
I became a spy because my father before me was a spy. Although I am, for the time being, hiding something from you. In a rose garden in Buenos Aires, a young American spy meets the beautiful daughter of a famous Argentinian revolutionary. They fall in love. But he is no ordinary spy - and she is no ordinary woman. He has a hidden agenda: to avenge his father, who died penniless and friendless on the streets of Washington. And in Luz, he seems to have found an ally. But, as his fate becomes further entwined with hers, he soon finds himself caught in a perilous web of passions, loyalties and lies that stretches back to the darkest days of the Cold War.
Maxim Jakubowski's November 2015 Book of the Month. Veteran thriller writer McCarry returns with a poignant spy tale of mixed loyalties, betrayal and the collapse of political idealism in which the conflict between the power of love and revenge anchors a complex plot in reality and fate. Deeply scarred by the CIA's earlier betrayal of his father, a devious but bright American spy determines to get his own back and when he falls hard for the beautiful daughter of a famous Argentinian revolutionary it soon becomes unclear who is manipulating who and where feelings become calculations. The complex tale covers much of the geopolitical struggles in the Middle East and South America of the past decades and quickly transforms into a breathless love story allied with a devious spider's web of a thriller. Adding such a fragile human element to a Le Carre-like deviousness makes this a terribly bittersweet read in which a master storyteller chronicles the secret world and anchors it in a melancholy reality. Like a spear to the heart. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
I became a spy because my father before me was a spy. Although I am, for the time being, hiding something from you. In a rose garden in Buenos Aires, a young American spy meets the beautiful daughter of a famous Argentinian revolutionary. They fall in love. But he is no ordinary spy - and she is no ordinary woman. For he has a hidden agenda: to avenge his father, who died penniless and friendless on the streets of Washington. In Luz, he seems to have found an ally for his secret mission. But, as his fate becomes further entwined with hers, he soon finds himself caught in a perilous web of passions, loyalties and lies that stretches back to the darkest days of the Cold War.
I became a spy because my father before me was a spy. Although I am, for the time being, hiding something from you. In a rose garden in Buenos Aires, a young American spy meets the beautiful daughter of a famous Argentinian revolutionary. They fall in love. But he is no ordinary spy - and she is no ordinary woman. He has a hidden agenda: to avenge his father, who died penniless and friendless on the streets of Washington. And in Luz, he seems to have found an ally. But, as his fate becomes further entwined with hers, he soon finds himself caught in a perilous web of passions, loyalties and lies that stretches back to the darkest days of the Cold War.
On a rainy night in Paris, Paul Christopher's lover Molly Benson falls victim to a vehicular homicide minutes after Christopher boards a jet bound for Vietnam. To explain this senseless murder, The Last Supper goes back not only to the earliest days of Christopher's life, but also to the origins of the CIA. Moving seamlessly from tales of refugee smuggling in Nazi Germany to OSS-coordinated guerrilla warfare in Burma and the confusion of the Vietnam War, McCarry creates an intimate history of this shadow-world of deceit and betrayal.
Earth's wealthiest man attempts to save humanity from an impending apocalypse. The planet's first and only trillionaire, Henry Peel, did not make his fortune by being a fool. A gifted inventor and scientist, he possesses an imagination on the scale of history's greatest thinkers, and he has turned it to the problem of Earth's core. Two decades ago, scientists learned that the core spins faster than the rest of the planet, storing up a cache of energy that, if released, could cause an earthquake that would obliterate human life. To begin mankind anew, Henry Peel is going to lead us to the stars. He gathers the world's leading physicists and engineers and asks them to design a spaceship large enough to safeguard a sample of humanity and durable enough to survive a thousand-year voyage. Money is no object, but time is short. The apocalypse is on its way.
Cool, urbane Paul Christopher is the perfect American agent, currently working in deep cover in the twilight world of international intrigue. But now even he cannot tell good from bad in a maze of double- and triple-cross. As a group of international agents embark on a trip in a Cadillac from Switzerland to the Sudan, Christopher knows that he has to find which one is about to unleash bloody terrorism - and God help everyone if he makes a mistake. Originally published in 1973, this compelling and distinctive thriller was the debut of the widely celebrated Charles McCarry and is the first book to introduce readers to Paul Christopher. Finally back in paperback, 'The Miernik Dossier' will introduce a new generation of readers to the work of one of the great spy novelists.
A fast, easy read of espionage and duplicity featuring a new recruit who may or may not become a double agent for or with the Chinese. You know the sort of thing. It’s all very complicated, secretive and colourful. Set largely in China where the author, an ex-CIA agent, served, it’s tautly written and presumably reasonably authentic. Good fun.
From this crisis, master storyteller Charles McCarry, author of the classic thrillers The Tears of Autumn and The Last Supper weaves a masterpiece of political intrigue. Shelley's Heart is so gripping in its realism and so striking in its foresight that McCarry's devoted readers may view this tale of love, murder, betrayal, and life-or-death struggles for the political soul of America as an act of prophecy.
It is the late 1930s, and a young Christopher bears witness to an unspeakable atrocity committed by a remorseless SS officer. When the action moves forward to the height of the Cold War, the SS man emerges out of the ruins of post-war Germany to destroy the last living witness to his crime. It's a case of tiger chasing tiger as Christopher is pursued by the only man who can match his craft or his instincts. With ferocious suspense and masterful pacing, Charles McCarry delivers a haunting parable of a man confronted with the ghosts of an entire generation's brutal history.
Its an election year, and America is polarized between a lantern-jawed liberal and a far-right former businessman with deep ties to the energy industry. Meanwhile suicide bombers, led by an Arab prince made rich by oil, are using passenger airlines to spread chaos and fear. Their goal is the destruction of Israel and America, and they are proving to be almost impossible to find.
Spy Paul Christopher, now retired and living a normal life in Washington, is brought back into the Outfit when his old friend comes to him with a worrying development: someone is kidnapping U.S. agents and pumping them full of a new mind-control drug. It is up to Christopher to work out who is behind this insidious form of warfare and what the enemy is doing with the extracted information.
An American spy in China. Name: Unknown. Status: Sleeper. He's meant to be laying low, polishing his Mandarin and awaiting further instructions from Washington. But Shandhai is a difficult city to sleep in, especially when his nights are taken over by the seductive but enigmatic Mei - a woman with secrets he'd rather not hear. Then he is tasked with a delicate operation. Infiltrate the core of the Chinese intelligence service. Distinguish friend from foe. Report to a single contact at HQ. Trust no one. Tell no one. Pushed out into the cold, in a city of millions he's suddenly very, very alone. But in Shanghai city you're never truly alone. Faceless strangers linger in the shadows, watching your every move. No one is safe from the Guoanbu. Not even a spy with no name...
A Maxim Jakubowski selected title.Often seen as the American Le Carre, McCarry is an understated spy thriller writer who seldom puts a foot wrong. Although his new novel does not feature his eponymous Christopher family, it does not disappoint, a jigsaw puzzle involving Chinese intelligence and a murky branch of the US apparatus, in which no characters are black or white or who they appear to first be.
Paul Christopher, at the height of his powers as a secret agent, believes he knows who arranged JFKs assassination. But his theory is so destructive of the legend of Kennedy and so dangerous to the survival of foreign policy that he is ordered to drop his investigation. But Christopher is a man who lives by and for the truth, and his internal compunctions force him to the heart of the matter.
Early one morning in West Berlin, a nervous courier delivers the handwritten manuscript of a dissident Russian novel to agent Paul Christopher; minutes later the couriers spine is snapped by an impact with a passing limousine. Meanwhile in Rome, Christophers wife Cathy takes a lover in an attempt to stir her husbands stoicism. These two seemingly discrete events set in motion a spiral of operational and personal intrigue that leads Christopher from Europe to Africa, as he secretly arranges the publication of a book that could bring the Soviet Union to its knees and races to identify the leak that compromised his messenger and possibly the entire mission.
Retired master spy Paul Christopher goes missing a day after a family dinner. Months later a Chinese official delivers his ashes to the American consulate in Beijing, and a memorial service is held in Washington. But the Old Boys of the CIA are not convinced that their ex-colleague is dead and embark upon a thrilling search that takes them from Xinjiang to Brazil, from Rome to Moscow and finally to an unspeakably dangerous secret.
Earth's wealthiest man attempts to save humanity from an impending apocalypse The planet's first and only trillionaire, Henry Peel, did not make his fortune by being a fool. A gifted inventor and scientist, he possesses an imagination on the scale of history's greatest thinkers, and he has turned it to the problem of Earth's core. Two decades ago, scientists learned that the core spins faster than the rest of the planet, storing up a cache of energy that, if released, could cause an earthquake that would obliterate human life. To begin mankind anew, Henry Peel is going to lead us to the stars. He gathers the world's leading physicists and engineers and asks them to design a spaceship large enough to safeguard a sample of humanity and durable enough to survive a thousand-year voyage. Money is no object, but time is short. The apocalypse is on its way.
Born in squalid London at the turn of the eighteenth century, a girl makes a fresh start in the New WorldFanny's father, Henry Harding, has known Oliver Barebones since the two men were children. Together they survived the Great Plague and the Great Fire, and now they are rich, middle-aged, and unmarried. Everyone's shocked when Oliver, a lifelong bachelor, falls headfirst for a superstitious young girl named Rose. In two days he's decided to marry her. For the Hardings and the Barebones, it will be years before they find such happiness again.Ruin comes to them all in the shape of Alfred Montagu, a cold-hearted moneylender who ensnares them in crushing debt and schemes to marry Fanny. After her father dies, Fanny attempts to take refuge in France. It's not far enough to escape her troubles, so with Oliver and Rose, she departs for a far-off place called Connecticut, dodging Montagu by diving into the teeth of dangers no London girl could ever imagine.
Earth's wealthiest man attempts to save humanity from an impending apocalypseThe planet's first and only trillionaire, Henry Peel, did not make his fortune by being a fool. A gifted inventor and scientist, he possesses an imagination on the scale of history's greatest thinkers, and he has turned it to the problem of Earth's core. Two decades ago, scientists learned that the core spins faster than the rest of the planet, storing up a cache of energy that, if released, could cause an earthquake that would obliterate human life. To begin mankind anew, Henry Peel is going to lead us to the stars.He gathers the world's leading physicists and engineers and asks them to design a spaceship large enough to safeguard a sample of humanity and durable enough to survive a thousand-year voyage. Money is no object, but time is short. The apocalypse is on its way.
The KGB grooms a charming young American to run for presidentAlthough in the mid-1940s no one had ever heard of JFK, Jack Adams's mother insisted her new son be christened John Fitzgerald. Years after his parents' death, Jack learns the reason for his name: a packet of photos showing his mother in bed with young John Kennedy. As a student at Columbia University, Jack demonstrates that he inherited more than JFK's good looks. His irresistible charisma and political instinct make him a natural campus leader, but he has his sights set on something bigger than the student council. Young Jack Adams wants to be president of the United States, and the Soviet Union is prepared to help.A KGB spy named Dmitri recruits Jack, promising him the presidency in exchange for treason. Dmitri guides Jack for decades, putting him in a position to become the largest intelligence coup in historyunless the candidate's libido derails him first.
Earth's wealthiest man attempts to save humanity from an impending apocalypseThe planet's first and only trillionaire, Henry Peel, did not make his fortune by being a fool. A gifted inventor and scientist, he possesses an imagination on the scale of history's greatest thinkers, and he has turned it to the problem of Earth's core. Two decades ago, scientists learned that the core spins faster than the rest of the planet, storing up a cache of energy that, if released, could cause an earthquake that would obliterate human life. To begin mankind anew, Henry Peel is going to lead us to the stars.He gathers the world's leading physicists and engineers and asks them to design a spaceship large enough to safeguard a sample of humanity and durable enough to survive a thousand-year voyage. Money is no object, but time is short. The apocalypse is on its way.
Since his re-emergence with the publication of Old Boys and Christopher's Ghosts, Charles McCarry has been heralded as one of the select few novelists of espionage who manage to break out of their genre to shine as brilliant and unique. Second Sight is seventh in the series that follows the legendary spy Paul Christopher-a man ensnared by an insidious line of work-espionage-, which threatens to take over all aspects of his life. Now retired and living the quiet life as a loving husband in Washington, Christopher has survived the battlefields of World War II, the undercover Cold War killing grounds, and imprisonment in China. But now, throughout the Arab world, U.S. agents are being kidnapped and brain-drained by an unidentified enemy armed with a diabolical new drug. Christopher's old friend and superior in 'the Outfit' calls with a request he feels he must take up. But what begins for Christopher as a global manhunt swiftly turns into something far closer to home. For the key to the danger he must defuse is a secret buried deep in his own perilous past.
Master spy Paul Christopher is back ... or is he? Charles McCarry is considered by many to be the master of world-class spy fiction, garnering praise from peers and critics alike for his riveting novels. Christopher Buckley wrote that McCarry "e;is not only one of the best writers in America but one of the most important. He dazzles, from epigraph to epilogue,"e; and the Los Angeles Times hailed his work as "e;first rate, in the tradition of the best espionage fiction, John Buchan to Eric Ambler and John le Carre."e; In this magnificent novel, Charles McCarry returns to the world of his legendary character Paul Christopher-the savvy intelligence agent as skilled at choosing a fine wine as he is at tradecraft, at once sophisticated and dangerous, and no stranger to the world of dirty tricks. Now Paul Christopher has mysteriously disappeared. Months pass, and a memorial service is held for him in Washington. But a group of his retired colleagues-the "e;Old Boys"e; from the Outfit-refuse to believe Christopher is dead. Led by Christopher's cousin Horace, the Old Boys embark on a thrilling worldwide search for the master spy and an ancient scroll that may reveal an unspeakably dangerous truth.
Spun with unsettling plausibility from the events surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and featuring secret agent Paul Christopher, The Tears of Autumn was a major bestseller upon its publication in 1975, and this riveting novel of espionage and foreign affairs remains just as gripping today. Christopher, at the height of his powers, believes he knows who arranged the assassination, and why. His theory is so destructive to the legend of the dead president, and so dangerous to the survival of foreign policy, that he is ordered to halt his investigation. But he is a man who lives by, and for, the truth - and his internal compunctions force him to the heart of the matter. After resigning from the Agency, he embarks on a tour of investigation that takes him from Paris to Rome, Zurich, the Congo and Saigon. Threatened by Kennedy's assassins and by his own government, Christopher follows the scent of his suspicion - one breath behind the truth, one step ahead of discovery and death.
It is the late 1930s, and a young Christopher bears witness to an unspeakable atrocity committed by a remorseless SS officer. When the action moves forward to the height of the Cold War, the SS man emerges out of the ruins of post-war Germany to destroy the last living witness to his crime. It's a case of tiger chasing tiger as Christopher is pursued by the only man who can match his craft or his instincts. With ferocious suspense and masterful pacing, Charles McCarry delivers a haunting parable of a man confronted with the ghosts of an entire generation's brutal history.
The acclaimed author of such suspense classics as The Tears of Autumn and The Miernik Dossier brings us a unique period romance, set in early eighteenth-century Europe and New England featuring the ancestors of his recurring master-spy Paul Christopher. Young, high-spirited Fanny has been fortunate in her civilized upbringing, but the London she has grown up in is riddled with danger and brutality. When a sinister stranger traps her family into debt in order to advance on Fanny, she is forced to take refuge in France, where she meets a young French soldier named Philippe de Saint-Christophe. Their paths will cross again in the New World, where the war between the English and the French is fought with the help of savage Indians on both sides. Together, Fanny and Philippe carve out a fierce, adventurous life in the vigorous, untamed wilderness.
From the master of suspense and political intrigue comes this hilarious and richly perceptive novel about a gifted politician with dangerous friends and a zipper problem. John Fitzgerald Adams, known by the voters who love him as Jack, has good reason to believe he is the illegitimate son of John F. Kennedy. His goal is the same as that of any Kennedy: to reclaim the presidency and enjoy as many women as possible along the way. Jack possesses an unerring political genius for charming voters and advancing his own interests, but he can't make it to the Oval Office without financial support. Luckily, his talents have been recognized by some radical Russians who are happy to invest heavily in his rise to power. As Jack marches toward the presidency, those who realize the truth about his sinister connections try to stop him-but will anyone believe them?
The Miernik Dossier is the dazzling first novel, recently reissued, by master spy novelist Charles McCarry. In this riveting, imaginative tale, five international agents embark on a road trip in a Cadillac from Switzerland to the Sudan. Among them are Paul Christopher, an American operative; Kalash el Khatar, the seven-foot-tall Muslim prince; Ilona Bentley, the beautiful half-English, half-Hungarian girlfriend of the British national, Nigel Collins; and Tadeusz Miernik, the shy and bumbling Polish scientist who might be the leader of a terror force that could set the Cold War aflame. Related as a collection of dossier notes written by the five characters, the novel reveals a complicated web in which each spins his or her own deception: each is a spider, and each a spy. The Miernik Dossier is an absolute masterpiece.
Spun with unsettling plausibility from the events surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and featuring secret agent Paul Christopher, The Tears of Autumn is a tour de force of action and enigma. Christopher, at the height of his powers, believes he knows who arranged the assassination and why. His theory is so destructive of the legend of the dead president, though, and so dangerous to the survival of foreign policy, that he is ordered to desist from investigating. But Christopher is a man who lives by, and for, the truth, and his internal compunctions force him to the heart of the matter. Christopher resigns from the Agency and embarks on a tour of investigation that takes him from Paris to Rome, Zurich, the Congo, and Saigon. Threatened by Kennedy's assassins and by his own government, Christopher follows the scent of his suspicion-one breath behind the truth, one step ahead of discovery and death. The Tears of Autumn is an incisive study of power and a brilliant commentary on the force of illusion, the grip of superstition, and the overwhelming strength of blood and family in the affairs of a nation.
Early one morning in West Berlin, a nervous courier delivers the handwritten manuscript of a dissident Russian novel to Paul Christopher. Minutes after the handoff, the courier's spine is neatly snapped by an impact with a passing black sedan. Meanwhile, in Rome, Christopher's wife Cathy takes a famous film director as a lover to stir her husband out of the stoicism that defines his personality. These two seemingly discreet events set in motion a spiral of operational and personal intrigue, leading Christopher from the cafes of old Europe to the front lines of the Cold War in the Congo. As he secretly arranges the publication of a novel that could bring the Soviet system to its knees, he races to identify the leak that compromised his messenger-and possibly the entire mission. Since his reemergence with the publication of Old Boys, Charles McCarry has been once again heralded as one of the select few espionage novelists who manages to break out of his genre to shine as a brilliant novelist in his own right. The Secret Lovers is McCarry at his best: an exploration of the epic scope of "e;the great game,"e; but also a riveting psychological portrait of a man ensnared by a profession that never failed to exert its insidious influence outside the professional boundaries-and that, like the facade of diplomacy that outwardly held the Cold War in check, could never contain its violent essence.
With cinematic scope and masterful pacing, Charles McCarry delivers a haunting parable of a man confronted with the ghosts of an entire generation's brutal history. The grand tale begins in 1939 Berlin, where young Paul Christopher and his family are struggling against the rise of Nazi totalitarianism. The Christophers are known to be sympathetic to the persecuted Jews, while sixteen-year-old Paul has fallen in love with the daughter of a Jewish doctor. Their enemy is a sadistic SS officer named Stutzer, who will stop at nothing to destroy the young couple. Twenty years later, top CIA agent Paul Christopher is the only living witness to Stutzer's crimes. As he edges toward a confrontation with this mortal enemy, Christopher is forced to operate in the one theater he had thought he had mastered: his own past.
Charles McCarry has been called the best American espionage writer who ever lived. Now, with the re-release of his classic Paul Christopher series, comes The Last Supper, a tour de force that traces the evolution of the OSS and the CIA from the aftermath of World War I through World War II, Vietnam, and the Cold War. To Paul Christopher, the world of espionage had become a region of the mad, in which men and women lived without conviction and were compelled by a craving for conspiracy. But now, he has to find the "e;mole"e; in the Outfit and demand justice from enemies, past and present. As he follows the twisting path of this secret American intelligence group, he discovers a trail of betrayal and violence that leads backward to the horrors of the Nazi era and plunges forward beyond the Vietnam War's labyrinth of lies.
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