The Last Supper
Charles McCarry
'The absolute best thriller writer alive'
P.J. O'Rourke'Charles McCarry s a true master of the genre. It's difficult to imagine anyone who writes better spy thrillers than McCarry, even among Britons such as John Le Carre, who are usually acknowledged as the masters ... This is a truly gripping novel that, with uncomfortable accuracy I suspect, traces and illuminates the origins of the CIA ... In fact, [it is] so gripping, so revealing and so prescient are McCarry's works of spy "fiction", written in the 1970s and '80s, that the reader is left feeling foolish for not having read them sooner.'
(Herald Sun)'McCarry's prose is spare and poetic. His writing is less leisurely than John le Carré's, his details harder edged. He seems to understand what effect his writing has on the reader, moving from scene to scene with a compelling inevitability.'
Graeme Blundell (Weekend Australian)On a rainy night in Paris, Paul Christopher’s lover, Molly Benson, falls victim to a vehicular homicide minutes after Christopher boards a jet bound for Vietnam. To explain this seemingly senseless murder, The Last Supper takes its readers back, not only to the earliest days of Christopher’s life, but also to the origins of the CIA in the clandestine operations of the OSS during World War II. Moving seamlessly from tales of refugee smuggling in Nazi Germany, to OSS-coordinated guerilla warfare against the Japanese in Burma, to the confused violence of the Vietnam War, McCarry creates an intimate history of the shadow world of deceit and betrayal that penetrates the psyches of the men and women who live within it.
Perhaps the most richly complex of McCarry’s renowned Paul Christopher novels, The Last Supper is an epic recreation of the history of an organisation ensnared by a culture of conspiracy, subterfuge, and senseless violence.
'Superior spy fare'
Lucy Sussex (Sunday Age)'McCarry is a master of his craft, and his Paul Christopher series is certainly an enduring classic of the espionage genre.'
Elizabeth Emanuel (Media and Culture Reviews)Charles McCarry
Charles McCarry established an international reputation as a novelist in 1975, with the publication of his worldwide bestseller, The Tears of Autumn. He is the author of ten other critically acclaimed novels — The Miernik Dossier, The Secret Lovers, Old Boys, The Better Angels, The Last Supper, The Bride of the Wilderness, Second Sight, Shelley's Heart, Lucky Bastard, and Christopher's Ghosts — which have been translated into more than 20 languages. During the Cold War, he was a CIA officer operating under deep cover in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Since his resignation from the CIA, Charles McCarry has divided his time between the Berkshires and Florida's east coast.