The Secret Lovers, published by E.P. Dutton in 1977, was the third of seven novels by the American novelist Charles McCarry to feature an American intelligence agent named Paul Christopher. It takes place in 1960 and '61, a year after the events in the first Christopher novel, The Miernik Dossier , published in 1973, and three years before the beginning of The Tears of Autumn, published in 1974, which was actually the second book McCarry wrote about Christopher. Later books by McCarry, ten in all as of 2013, expanded from focusing solely on Christopher into what might be considered a chronicle of the Christopher universe: two novels feature his cousins, the Hubbards, and in many of the Christopher novels his father, mother, one-time wife, and daughter play important and recurring roles. Also in this universe is a 1988 historical novel, The Bride of the Wilderness , about Christopher's ancestors in 17th-century England, France, and Massachusetts. McCarry had been an undercover operative for the Central Intelligence Agency for nine years before turning to writing, and his books were hailed for their apparent authenticity and realistic depiction of tradecraft. The Miernik Dossier received excellent reviews, and instantly established McCarry's reputation as one of the foremost American novelists of espionage. Like all of McCarry's books, this one displays "an almost Jamesian awareness of [its] European locale, the special authenticity of a loving expatriate writing of an adopted foreign land." [1]
Paul Christopher
Although the entire narrative of the book basically follows the actions and thoughts of Paul Christopher, we learn little more about him than we did in The Miernik Dossier, where he was not always on stage. Even though he is now married to a beautiful, young, passionate girl apparently from his own general background—"their mothers had been in the same class at Bryn Mawr; their fathers used the same law firm in New York"—and with whom he is apparently deeply in love, he is still the same mostly faceless agent as before. We are told again that he had served in the Army in World War II and that he attended Harvard. And we are told that he previously wrote poetry but no longer does—his wife begs him to begin again but he refuses. His reputation within the shadowy agency for which he works, obviously the CIA but never actually called that, is high: his colleagues and superiors consider him to be intelligent, imaginative, coldblooded, and implacable. He is, at all times, a thorough-going professional, always conscious of his shadowy status. His cover is said to be that of a well-known journalist or free-lance writer for prominent magazines, but this is never directly shown. He lives in Rome, and only there does he permit himself to be known in restaurants by his own name. Elsewhere, "as a matter of professional caution, he booked table reservations in a false name, and made certain that he did not eat at the same restaurant, or drink at the same bar, more than two or three times a year."
But even before he became a spy, Christopher had disliked being recognized by headwaiters and bartenders. As a youth he had never exchanged a word with the New York Irishmen who tended bar at P.J. Clarke's or the Frenchmen behind the zinc bar at the Dôme, though others seemed to attach importance to being known by name to these contemptuous men.
Recurring characters
In most of McCarry's novels, both those about Christopher and those about his cousins the Hubbards, there are characters who turn up in more than one of the books. In The Secret Lovers we have Paul Christopher, who had been in two earlier books, and the first appearance of his wife, Cathy, as well as David Patchen, a Harvard roommate, fellow soldier in World War II, and colleague in their intelligence agency. Both of them will figure prominently in later books. Barney Wolkowicz, who will have important roles in Christopher's future, is chief of the Berlin station here. And Otto Rothschild, a major character in this book, is mentioned briefly in The Last Supper, written six years later. His wife, Maria, also important in The Secret Lovers, reappears in Second Sight, published in 1991, as does Otto. Horst Bülow, the hapless German agent whose murder in the first pages of this book sets the plot in motion, also makes more than one brief appearances in The Last Supper.
Charles McCarry was an American writer, primarily of spy fiction, and a former undercover operative for the Central Intelligence Agency whom The Wall Street Journal described in 2013 as the dean of American spy writers; The New Republic magazine calls him "poet laureate of the CIA."; and Otto Penzler says he has produced some "poetic masterpieces". William Zinsser calls him a "political novelist:" Jonathan Yardley, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for the Washington Post, calls him a "'serious' novelist" whose work may include "the best novel ever written about life in high-stakes Washington, DC." P.J. O'Rourke called him "the best modern writer on the subject of intrigue." O'Rourke learned about McCarry from a working covert operative who called McCarry "very realistic."
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The Miernik Dossier, published by the Saturday Review Press in 1973, was the first of seven novels by the American novelist Charles McCarry featuring an American intelligence agent named Paul Christopher. Set in 1959 in Europe and Africa during the days of the Cold War, it is narrated in the form of reports, overheard conversations, and various documents from a multitude of sources of different nationalities, supposedly giving the reader an authentic picture of what an actual intelligence operation might be like. McCarry had previously been an undercover operative for the Central Intelligence Agency for nine years, and the book was hailed for its apparent authenticity and realistic depiction of tradecraft. It received excellent reviews, and instantly established McCarry's reputation as one of the foremost American novelists of espionage. Later books by McCarry, nine more in all, expanded from focusing solely on Christopher into what might be considered a chronicle of the Christopher universe: two novels feature his cousins, the Hubbards, and in many of the other Christopher novels his father, mother, one-time wife, and daughter play important and recurring roles. Also in this universe is a 1988 historical novel, The Bride of the Wilderness, about Christopher's ancestors in 17th-century England, France, and Massachusetts. Like all of McCarry's books, this one displays "an almost Jamesian awareness of [its] European locale, the special authenticity of a loving expatriate writing of an adopted foreign land."
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