Charles McCarry

Charles McCarry (born in 1930, in Massachusetts, USA) is an American writer, primarily of spy fiction.

His family is from The Berkshires area of western Massachusetts, where he currently lives.

McCarry served in the United States Army, where he was a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, and he has been a small-town newspaperman.

McCarry was editor-at-large for National Geographic and has contributed pieces to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and other national publications.

His novels are currently published by Overlook Press, starting with Tears of Autumn (2005). Charles N. Brown, the publisher of Locus, which primarily addresses the science-fiction publishing world, wrote in the July 2006 issue: "Two Charles McCarry hardcover reprints from Overlook... aren't really SF or fantasy, but they are two of the best spy thrillers ever written and form a secret or alternate history of the 20th century."

McCarry is best known for a series of books concerning the life of super spy Paul Christopher, notable for their historical detail and depiction of spycraft, as well as their careful and extensive examination of Christopher's relationship with his family, friends, wives, and lovers. Born in Germany before World War II, to a German mother and an American father, Christopher joins the CIA after serving as a First lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. In the war Christopher fought in The Battle of Okinawa, where he received the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. He becomes one of the agency's most effective spies. After launching an unauthorized investigation of the Kennedy assassination, Christopher becomes a pariah to the agency and a hunted man. Eventually, he spends 10 years in a Chinese prison before being released and embarking on a solution to the mystery that has haunted him his entire life: the fate of his mother, who disappeared at the beginning of World War II.

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