Miernik Dossier
Part 1 of the Paul Christopher series
A circle of spies travels by Cadillac from Switzerland to the Sudan in this critically acclaimed novel: "arguably the finest modern American spy story" (The New York Times).
Paul Christopher is cool, urbane, clear-sighted-a perfect American agent in deep cover in the twilight world of international intrigue. But now even he does not know which side is good or bad in a maze of double- and triplecross.
When a small group of international agents embarks on a road trip from Switzerland to the Sudan, Christopher is among them. Along for the ride are a comical Polish exile, a beautiful Hungarian seductress, and a North African prince with an appetite for women and a lust for power. Christopher only knows that he has to find whose finger is on the trigger of a terrorist threat that could turn the Cold War uncomfortably hot-and God help everyone if he makes a mistake.
Related as a collection of dossier notes on the mission, The Miernik Dossier reveals a complicated web in which each character spins his or her own deception.
The Miernik Dossier
Part 1 of the Paul Christopher series
Related as a collection of dossier notes written by the five characters, The Miernik Dossier reveals a complicated web in which each spins his or her own deception: each is a spider, and each is a spy. The Miernik Dossier is a thoroughgoing masterpiece.
The Tears of Autumn
Part 2 of the Paul Christopher series
A rogue agent crisscrosses the globe to investigate the assassination of JFK in this acclaimed spy novel by the acclaimed author of The Miernik Dossier.
When President Kennedy is shot in Dallas, the nation is shocked and mystified. But American spy Paul Christopher has a different perspective. He believes he knows who arranged the assassination and why. But if his theory is correct, it would destroy the dead president's image and endanger vital foreign policy. Christopher is therefore ordered to end his investigation.
Determined to uncover the truth, Christopher resigns from the Agency and embarks on a quest 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 into the dark heart of a geopolitical conspiracy.
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.
Tears of Autumn
Part 2 of the Paul Christopher series
"As soon as he began publishing fiction more than three decades ago, Charles McCarry was recognized as a spy novelist of uncommon gifts" wrote Charles Trueheart in The Washington Post. Tears of Autumn, McCarry's riveting novel of espionage and foreign affairs, was a major bestseller upon its first publication in 1975. Spun with unsettling plausibility from the events surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and featuring Paul Christopher, it's 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 he 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.|Charles McCarry is the author, most recently, of Christopher's Ghosts, and has written ten acclaimed novels featuring Paul Christopher and his family (all available from Overlook). During the Cold War, he was an intelligence officer operating under deep cover in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
The Secret Lovers
Part 3 of the Paul Christopher series
An American spy confronts personal and political intrigues when he obtains a Russian dissident's explosive manuscript in this Cold War spy thriller.
In West Berlin, CIA agent Paul Christopher receives a dissident Russian novelist's handwritten manuscript from a nervous courier. Minutes after the handoff, the courier's spine is nearly snapped by 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 his cool and unfeeling stoicism.
These two seemingly discrete events set in motion a spiral of operational and personal intrigue that leads Christopher from clandestine meetings in the cafes of old Europe to a rendezvous with an operative on the front lines of the Cold War in the Congo. All the while, he secretly arranges the publication of a novel that could bring the Soviet system to its knees, and races to identify the leak that compromised the messenger-and possibly his entire mission.
The Secret Lovers
Part 3 of the Paul Christopher series
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 discrete events set in motion a spiral of operational and personal intrigue that leads Christopher from meetings with an aging agent in the cafes of old Europe to a rendezvous with an operative on 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 and races to identify the leak that compromised the messenger-and possibly his entire mission. The Secret Lovers is McCarry at his best-an exploration of the epic scope of 'the great game,' 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 that, like the facade of diplomacy that outwardly held the Cold War in check, could never contain its violence essence.
Part 4 of the Paul Christopher series
When Charles McCarry's The Better Angels was first published almost 30 years ago, its premise--that terrorists would use passenger-filled airliners as tools of terror--seemed incredible. In retrospect, the novel would prove to be prophetic. The Better Angels takes place in an election year close to the turn of the century in a deeply polarized America. The presidential race matches a tall, lantern-jawed liberal to a far-right former businessman with deep ties to the energy industry. Meanwhile, Islamic terrorists led by an oil-rich Arab prince, desperate to acquire nuclear bombs to use against Israel or major American cities, disrupt the presidential campaign through a series of bloody suicide bombing. Finally the election itself is stolen, as one side hacks into computerized voting systems to change the tallies in key states. From the writer the New York Times Book Review called "the genuine article," The Better Angels is a thrilling and relevant masterwork.
The Last Supper
Part 5 of the Paul Christopher series
On a rainy night in Paris, Paul Christopher's lover Molly Benson falls victim to a vehicular homicide minutes after Christopher boards a jet to Vietnam. To explain this seemingly senseless murder, The Last Supper takes its readers back not only to the earliest days of Christopher's life, but also to the origins of the CIA in the clandestine operations of the OSS during World War II. Moving seamlessly from tales of refugee smuggling in Nazi Germany, to OSS-coordinated guerilla warfare against the Japanese in Burma, to the chaotic violence of the Vietnam War, McCarry creates an intimate history of the shadow world of deceit and betrayal that penetrates the psyches of the men and women who live within it.
The Last Supper
Part 5 of the Paul Christopher series
To solve his lover's murder, a spy must investigate his own checkered past in a thriller that spans from Weimar Germany to Cold War Vietnam.
CIA Agent Paul Christopher is used to the feeling of dread. So he doesn't think much of Molly Benson's concerns as he leaves her bed in Paris for a quick trip to Vietnam. But minutes after Christopher boards the jet, his lover falls victim to a vehicular homicide.
To explain this seemingly senseless murder, The Last Supper takes its readers back not only to the earliest days of Christopher's life, but also to the origins of the CIA in the clandestine operations of the OSS during World War II. Moving seamlessly from tales of refugee smuggling in Nazi Germany, to guerilla warfare in Burma, to the chaotic violence of the Vietnam War, McCarry creates an intimate history of espionage, and the shadow world of deceit and betrayal in which it operates.
The Bride of the Wilderness
Part 6 of the Paul Christopher series
Born in squalid London at the turn of the eighteenth century, a girl makes a fresh start in the New World Fanny'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.
Second Sight
Part 7 of the Paul Christopher series
Second Sight is seventh in the series that follows the legendary spy Paul Christopher-a man ensnared by a line of work that never failed to exert its insidious influence outside professional boundaries. Now retired and living the quiet life as a loving husband in Washington, D.C., Christopher has survived battlefields of World War II, 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 command he feels he must obey. 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.
Second Sight
Part 7 of the Paul Christopher series
A legendary CIA agent is called out of retirement to combat an unknown enemy in this sweeping international spy thriller.
Second Sight is the seventh thriller in the critically acclaimed series that follows CIA Agent Paul Christopher-a man ensnared by a line of work that never failed to exert its insidious influence outside professional boundaries.
Now retired and living the quiet life as a loving husband in Washington, D.C., Christopher has survived battlefields of World War II, 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 command he feels he must obey. 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.
Shelley's Heart
A Thriller
Part 8 of the Paul Christopher series
On the eve of the Inauguration the losing candidate presents proof of the crime to his opponent, the incumbent President, and demands that he stand aside. The winner refuses and takes the oath of office, thereby setting in motion what may destroy him and his party, and even bring down the Constitution. From this crisis, master storyteller Charles McCarry, author of such classic thrillers as 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.|Charles McCarry is the author, most recently, of Christopher's Ghosts, and has written ten acclaimed novels featuring Paul Christopher and his family. During the Cold War, he was an intelligence officer operating under deep cover in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
The Old Boys
Part 9 of the Paul Christopher series
In his magnificent new novel, with rights sold in six countries before publication, McCarry returns to the world of his legendary character, Paul Christopher, the crack intelligence agent who is as skilled at choosing a fine wine as he is at tradecraft, at once elegant and dangerous, sophisticated and rough-and-ready. As the novel begins, Paul Christopher, now an aging but remarkably fit 70ish, is dining at home with his cousin Horace, also an ex-agent. Dinner is delicious and uneventful. A day later, Paul has vanished. The months pass, Paul's ashes are delivered by a Chinese official to the American consulate in Beijing and a memorial service is held in Washington. But Horace is not convinced that Paul is dead and, enlisting the support of four other retired colleagues-a sort of all-star backfield of the old Outfit-Horace gets the 'Old Boys' back in the game to find Paul Christopher. Harassed by American intelligence, hunted by terrorists, Horace Christopher and the Old Boys travel the globe, from Xinjiang to Brazil, from Rome to Tel Aviv, Budapest to Moscow, in search of Paul and the unspeakably dangerous truth.
Old Boys
Part 9 of the Paul Christopher series
In his magnificent new novel, with rights sold in six countries before publication, McCarry returns to the world of his legendary character, Paul Christopher, the crack intelligence agent who is as skilled at choosing a fine wine as he is at tradecraft, at once elegant and dangerous, sophisticated and rough-and-ready. As the novel begins, Paul Christopher, now an aging but remarkably fit 70ish, is dining at home with his cousin Horace, also an ex-agent. Dinner is delicious and uneventful. A day later, Paul has vanished. The months pass, Paul's ashes are delivered by a Chinese official to the American consulate in Beijing and a memorial service is held in Washington. But Horace is not convinced that Paul is dead and, enlisting the support of four other retired colleagues-a sort of all-star backfield of the old Outfit-Horace gets the "Old Boys" back in the game to find Paul Christopher. Harassed by American intelligence, hunted by terrorists, Horace Christopher and the Old Boys travel the globe, from Xinjiang to Brazil, from Rome to Tel Aviv, Budapest to Moscow, in search of Paul and the unspeakably dangerous truth.
Christopher's Ghosts
Part 10 of the Paul Christopher series
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.