Great

Great

This was well done. Le Carré is fiction, but the underlying reality is the cold war, which was real. The underlying reality in this book is a conspiracy theory. It has to lose a star for that since conspiracy theories cause brain damage. ( )

Reading the obituaries in the newspaper often leads me to discoveries or lives led and things done that I had somehow missed or forgotten about. Charles McCarry recently passed away and I happened to read the obit in the Washington Post and I had to wonder how I had never heard of him or read any of his books. The description seemed right up my alley, to sum it up he was presented as the American version of John le Carre´. I saw that "Tears of Autumn" was considered his best book so I dove right in. I'm very happy I did. I love a writer who has faith in the patience and intelligence of his or her readers and clearly Mr. MCcCarry did. The book is written in the third person and while it is omniscient, it is what I'd call selectively omniscient. Our hero, Paul Christopher, will interact with someone and the dialog and action seems cryptic. We are not given the explanation right away and as the reader you need to have the patience to just tuck it away. Every time it is paid off later and in such a seamless style. There are no jarring info dumps here. He makes sure we know all at the end by engineering a totally organic and natural update of the Poirot telling all in the study at the end of an Agatha Christie mystery. The story is complex and really sprawls out but it all seems real and correct. Clearly Mr. McCarry's real work in the espionage world informed his writing. There are no silly chase scenes or crazy shoot outs in this book. If that is what you want you won't like this. Paul Christopher is not like James Bond, thank goodness, he is a real person doing real work. The plot is actually quite amazing and it was a surprise to me how it developed. I won't even start to spoil it because having it revealed to you as a reader is part of the joy of this book. I'm sorry I didn't know about him earlier but I will definitely be reading more of his books. He is definitely playing the same arena as le Carre´, with a decidedly American spin. Keep reading those obits! ( )

Charles McCarry's "Tears of Autumn," a work of fiction, is so believable that it is surprising that here in 2020 conspiracy theorist haven't latched onto it as non-fiction in disguise.
Paul Christopher is said to be an intelligence officer with three major traits: First, "he's intelligent and entirely unsentimental. Second, he will go to any lengths to get at the truth, he never gives up. Third, he is not subject to fear." Christopher sets out to ascertain if RFK's assassination was in retaliation for the deaths of Ngo Dinh Diam and Ngo Dinh Nhu. Although his search is violently opposed as an attempt to besmirch Kennedy's legacy, Christopher never falters even after U.S. agents attempt to assassinate him and Vietnamese killers threaten his lover, Molly. Christopher is not entirely unsentimental and he does fear, if only for Molly's life.