McCarry returns to the world of his legendary character, Paul Christopher, the crack intelligence agent who is as skilled at choosing a fine wine as he is at tradecraft, at once elegant and dangerous, sophisticated and rough-and-ready. As the novel begins, Paul has vanished...But Horace, Christopher's cousin and also an ex-agent, is not convinced that Paul is dead as he is informed and, enlisting the support of four other retired colleagues - a sort of all-star backfield of the old Outfit - Horace gets the "Old Boys" back in the game to find Paul Christopher. [Overlook Press]
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
Excellent spy thriller in the Anglo-American style.
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Outstanding
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Library Journal Barbara Conaty
McCarry, a wizard writer, transforms the sturdy ingredients of the spy and suspense genres into a magical brew for our new age. [1 May 2004, p.140]
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Outstanding
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Los Angeles Times Eugen Weber
His scrumptious writing carries triumphantly from one climax to another and the plot unfolds with vivid velocity to an explosive end.
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Outstanding
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Booklist David Wright
Tremendous fun. [1 May 2004, p.1514]
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Outstanding
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The Guardian Mark Lawson
It's an elegy for a generation and style of American spying.
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Outstanding
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Washington Post Charles Trueheart
A cheerfully convoluted yarn whose tone is by turns mischievous and elegiac.
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Favorable
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Daily Telegraph Jessica Mann
As McCarry and his dynamic alter-egos wipe the floor with the opposition, the message is clear: these boys may be old but they are not past it.
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Favorable
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The Spectator Michael Carlson
Perhaps McCarry noted the position of "The Da Vinci Code" atop the bestseller lists and decided he could write that with his eyes closed. Or maybe America's elite really do age better than ours do.
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Mixed
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Boston Globe Sam Allis
A tale that travels from the outlandish to the absurd. As long as readers don't expect the taut realism we have come to expect from the man, they'll be fine. If they're looking for vintage McCarry, though, this will produce unhappy campers.
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Mixed
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Publishers Weekly
The kitchen-sink approach to the plot increasingly strains credibility as the story zips along, and the tension between his all-too-believable "old boys" and the comic-book action is never satisfactorily resolved.
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Unfavorable
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The Economist
Mr McCarry, of all people, should stick with what he knows.
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