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Described on several occasions as the greatest espionage novel ever written, The Tears of Autumn, Charles McCarry's remarkable study of human duplicity and foreign affairs, was a noted success right from its initial publication. McCarry's subject was the events surrounding the assassination of John F Kennedy; his protagonist, US spook Paul Christopher, proved to be one of the most durable and intriguing characters in the genre.

CIA Agent Paul Christopher is convinced he knows who murdered Kennedy — and the reasons why. But his theory will undercut the reputation of the late president, and will endanger foreign policy, so Christopher is instructed to abandon the investigation. He resigns from the Agency and inaugurates a tour of investigation that transports him from Paris to Rome, Zurich, the Congo and Saigon. On his tail are Kennedy's assassins...

McCarry gleaned an immediate an international success with The Tears of Autumn in 1975. and followed it with ten more highly respect novels. His literary skills were complemented by the fact that during the Cold War he was an American intelligence officer operating under deep cover in Europe, Africa and Asia.

The Miernik Dossier similarly enjoyed remarkable success some two years earlier. Originally published in 1973, this striking novel was McCarry's debut and was the first book to present readers with resourceful spy Paul Christopher. Comparisons to John Le Carré, Eric Ambler, and Graham Greene are legion, and are fully justified. McCarry is unquestionably of that company.

The Tears of Autumn/The Miernik Dossier Charles McCarry

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