The Miernik Dossier (Paul Christopher, #1) in Espionage Aficionados

Jun 11, 2019 Philip rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-series, spy-fiction-american, 5-stars, 1970s, unconventional-style, real-spies-on-fake-spies, africa-north

This is a pretty remarkable book. The Miernik Dossier indeed takes the form of a case file, told completely through incident reports, CIA cable traffic, police logs, interview/interrogation transcripts, diary excerpts, etc. - an early example of the type of epistolary writing which has become increasingly popular lately, particularly in YA and SF with such books as The Illuminae Files, The Themis Files, The Three and others.

As such, this is one of the more realistic spy books I've read in a lon This is a pretty remarkable book. The Miernik Dossier indeed takes the form of a case file, told completely through incident reports, CIA cable traffic, police logs, interview/interrogation transcripts, diary excerpts, etc. - an early example of the type of epistolary writing which has become increasingly popular lately, particularly in YA and SF with such books as The Illuminae Files, The Themis Files, The Three and others.

As such, this is one of the more realistic spy books I've read in a long time, which makes it's inconclusive ending even more impactful. Two of the last documents in the book are completely contradictory summaries of all what happened to that point. In particular, main protagonist Paul Christopher makes the following statement, which I fear is far too reflective of how the CIA and similar organizations actually operate:

"I am going to say a very harsh thing that is directed as much (or more) against myself as against all you people who sit inside, making the plans that I carry out. I think we ran Miernik as we did primarily for the fun of it. We have come to look on our work, in the field at least, as sport..."

I say "main protagonist" because while Christopher appears in a number of subsequent books, McCarry in this first story pulls off the difficult task of making many characters equally important and, even when we know (or think we know) which of them are "the bad guys," equally sympathetic.

Nearly every review I've read states in one way or another that "Charles McCarry is the best espionage writer I've never heard of." And I'm guilty as well; I only learned of him when I read his obituary in the Washington Post this past February, and was particularly disappointed to learn that he had lived right here in Northern Virginia - I would most definitely have tracked him down.

I don't know yet if subsequent Christopher books were written in the same style, but I'll definitely be reading more of them, (luckily, as a "local author," our library has almost the entire series).

PERSONAL NOTE: Unusual for spy fiction, the second half of the story takes place mainly in the Sudan, while the first half takes place largely in Geneva but with critical scenes in Vienna and nearby-but-across-the-Iron-Curtain Bratislava as well. (The book takes place in the unspecified late 1950's, so apparently not long after after the Sudan obtained it's independence from the bizarre joint rule of Britain and Egypt.) These unique locales made the book of particular personal interest, as I know both Khartoum and Bratislava from earlier careers - having been lucky enough to spend a week in Khartoum during one of my last trips for the State Department; as well as taking several business trips to Slovakia as a much younger businessman. I have to say, the hilltop Bratislava Castle is about the coldest places I've ever been to - no exaggeration, as it was literally both cold and windy enough to have horizontal icicles "growing" (since they didn't actually hang) off tree branches!

(The horizontal icicles of Bratislava Castle) ...more

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Apr 27, 2013 Patrick Schultheis rated it really liked it

The first McCarry book I've read. Love his style. Well written, great characters, compelling plot ...more

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Jul 31, 2024 Michael Martz rated it really liked it

"The Miernik Dossier" was certainly an inventive approach to a spy story, as it's built from documents (logs from surveillance activities, phone taps, intercepted mail, reports by individual characters to their superiors, etc.) pieced together to form a mostly understandable narrative. It's not what I'd consider to be linear, but if you can deal with the idiosyncratic nature of this novel the characters are memorable, the writing is fine, there's excellent tradecraft for its time, and the plot i ...more

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Oct 09, 2017 Karthik M rated it it was amazing

one of the most celebral plotlines ever.
Eventual plotline end entirely depends on the reader's read of the book.
Miernik dossier (published in 1973) is still far above the spy fiction which is pressed out today. ...more

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