Christopher's Ghosts

McCarry takes the reader back to Paul Christopher's early days as youth in Berlin with his American father Hubbard and beautiful German mother Lori. The first half of the book is taken up with Christopher's passionate youthful romance with 'Rima' in the days immediately before WW II. Rima is the daughter of a renowned Jewish surgeon who has been ruined by the Reich (although not technically a Jew under that regime's twisted laws).

At the same time his mother attracts the attention of SS leader Reinhard Heydrich. Lori uses this relationship to help protect her family - up to a point.

The second part of the book picks up in 1959. Christopher is now a crack agent for the fledging US intelligence service. McCarry sends Christopher and the show more readers back to Cold War Berlin. The setting is shortly before the Wall goes up and Christopher is on a mission that dually serves his own ends as well as broader American interests.

McCarry uses Christopher's experiences to explore the uses of physical and psychological torture and its impact on torturer and victim. In doing so he holds a mirror up for the contemporary reader, not in a heavy-handed way, but one is led to uncomfortable reflections about the capacity of humans to inflict unspeakable suffering in what the torturers perceive as a good cause.

McCarry's newest effort satisfies more than his recent (and somewhat fantastic) Old Boys. If it falls short of his classic Tears of Autumn: A Paul Christopher Novel, well that's the price of writing a great novel in one's early days as an author. Christopher's Ghosts carries the reader back to the fear-filled days of the Reich in the fullness of its powers as well as the relentlessly gray days of Cold War deprivation in East Berlin.

Highly recommended, especially for fans of the spy genre. There is action here to satisfy the thrill-seeker, but McCarry also delivers political intrigue and personal introspection. show less

"Christopher's Ghosts" by Charles McCarry is divided into two parts. The first, "1939," is a touching romance between teens, Paul Christopher and Alexa Johann Maria Kaltenbach, whom Paul calls, Rima - since, "she had been like Rima the Bird Girl in his favorite novel, W.H. Hudson's 'Green Mansions' -- free, innocent, unattainable, a child of nature." Rima is "attained," and the romance blooms, though amid the terrors, brutalities, and consummate evil of Nazism.
In the second part, "1959," Paul Christopher, now a CIA agent arrives in East Berlin in fulfillment of two missions: the first personal -- to exact revenge on SS Major Stutzer, Paul's and the Christopher family's nemesis in 1939; the second professional -- to "recruit a show more high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer ... a KGB colonel named Yuri Kikorov. The second mission was not successful; the first was. "Christopher's Ghosts" is the best of all the series, I think, and certainly the most poetic. show less

Charles McCarry's 'Christopher's Ghosts' goes a long way, for a reader who's relatively new to this author, in explaining the deep background of the star of the series and why he is the way he is. It's really 2 books in one: the first half covers Paul Christopher's early life in pre-WWII Germany, his 'love affair' with a beautiful young lady, and the challenges for Jews in their daily existence in Berlin. The 2nd half takes place years later, when Christopher is on his way to 'stardom' as a US spy and discovers an evil character from his past that engages his thirst for retribution.

Christopher's Ghosts is not only a fine addition to McCarry's series, but is also an excellent reminder of the evil that existed in Europe just a few show more generations ago. It's fiction, but he's done his homework and we can all continue to be thankful that the good guys won the war. show less

some interesting characterisations; a lot of omnipotence around; truly scary descriptions of torture and psychological destruction; hero as murderer is problematic

Overall it was a good book and I’m glad to have read it.

I had never read anything by McCarry before, and until after I finished the book, I did not realize that Paul Christopher is a regular character of his. I did like the guy, so I should probably try one of his earlier stories to see if I like the spy story any better. I do, after all, like spy stories.

My complete review is on my Blog, Nate's Library, specifically at: http://nates-library.blogspot.com/2007/11/charles-mccarry-christophers-ghosts.ht...

Perfect