The Last Supper

April 3, 2006
First published in 1983, this is one of a half dozen of McCarry's espionage thrillers featuring CIA agent Paul Christopher, an old school spy who operates in a world where clever and vicious communists are unquestionably the villains, and who is handsome, dedicated and never short of compliant women. Dismissing his lover Molly Benson's feelings of dread, Paul leaves her bed to fly off to 1960s Vietnam. Sure enough, Molly is quickly murdered. Abruptly, the book flashes back to 1926 Germany where Paul's father, a young American writer, encounters minor Prussian nobility and the woman who will become Paul's mother. Apolitical until the Nazis arrest his wife in 1939, Paul's father joins the OSS that becomes the postwar CIA. At this point, fans of this veteran author will settle back to enjoy nearly 400 pages of nasty scheming. Paul's father spies successfully, but his obsessive efforts to track down his wife lead to Paul's father's murder. Following his father's footsteps into the Cold War "outfit," Paul travels the world to counter communist skullduggery, while delivering plenty of his own. He retires (after a 10-year stint in a Chinese prison) but continues to investigate his father's death. In so doing, he finds the answer as well as the reason for Molly's murder, leading to a shocking twist that turns his world upside down.

November 1, 2005
The third title in Overlook's series of McCarry reprints is a 1983 political thriller and among his best.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2006
A best-seller in Spain, McCarry's latest thriller is in "The Da Vinci Code" mode but with some significant differences. Set in Italy in 1497, the story is related by Father Agostino Leyre, an inquisitor for the Holy See. Anonymous messages arriving in Rome suggest that something suspicious is going on in Milan, where Leonard da Vinci is finishing " The Last Supper." When Leyre arrives in Milan, he is shocked to find blasphemous messages embedded in the artwork: Simon Peter is holding a knife; there's no Eucharist; none of the apostles has a halo. Clearly, Leonardo is incorporating a message into his masterpiece, but what is it? Using various points of view, McCarry dispenses information slowly, and the excitement comes in fits and starts. The primary problems are the lengthy cast of characters and the extensive religious background--especially regarding the Cathar heresy--necessary to understand the story's subtleties. Still, the appetite for religious thrillers continues unabated, and this formidable offering will satisfy more-erudite readers not overly concerned with fast pacing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)