The Secret Lovers (Paul Christopher Novels)

McCarry, Charles

ISBN 10: 0786165774 ISBN 13: 9780786165773

Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, 2006

Synopsis

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 "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--and that, like the facade of diplomacy that outwardly held the Cold War in check, could never contain its violent essence.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

A nervous courier delivers the handwritten manuscript of a dissident Russian novel to Paul Christopher early one morning in West Berlin. 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. 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 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.

About the Author:

Charles McCarry is the author of ten critically acclaimed novels and nine nonfiction books. He is a former editor-at-large of National Geographic and has contributed dozens of articles, short stories, and poems to leading national magazines. His op-ed pieces and other essays have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. For ten years he served under deep cover as a CIA operations officer.

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0786165774
• ISBN 13: 9780786165773
• Binding: Audio CD
• Number of pages: 9