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.

Author Biography

Charles McCarry established an international reputation with the publication of his worldwide bestseller The Tears of Autumn in 1975, and altogether has written ten critically acclaimed espionage and crime novels featuring Paul Christopher, the most elegant of spies. Several of his books have foreshadowed events that at the time seemed too outlandish to be possible, such as 9/11 and the Bush/Gore election scandal. During the Cold War, he was an intelligence officer operating under deep cover in Europe, Africa and Asia, and he draws on his own experience when writing his books, giving them a tangible, believable feel.