This image is the cover for the book Better Angels

Better Angels

In this political thriller by the author of The Secret Lovers, Paul Christopher’s cousins tinker with an election while a reporter chases a lead.

Originally published in 1979, The Better Angels is set close to the end of the twentieth century in a drastically changed America. The CIA has been dissolved into the Foreign Intelligence Service. It is an election year.  In Washington, D.C., an Englishman crashes a cocktail party at the home of TV anchorman Patrick Graham with a secret that could shake up an already deeply polarized nation. Soon, Graham is traveling the globe in search of the explosive truth . . .

From the writer the New York Times Book Review called “the genuine article,” The Better Angels is a thrilling and relevant masterwork.

Praise for The Better Angels

“A thinking man’s thriller with a frightening finale.” —Newsweek

Charles McCarry

A former operative for the CIA, Charles McCarry (b. 1930) is America’s most revered author of espionage fiction. Born in Massachusetts, McCarry began his writing career in the army, as a correspondent for Stars and Stripes. In the 1950s he served as a speechwriter for President Eisenhower before taking a post with the CIA, for which he traveled the globe as a deep cover operative. He left the Agency in 1967, and set about converting his experiences into fiction. His first novel, The Miernik Dossier (1971), introduced Paul Christopher, an American spy who struggles to balance his family life with his work. McCarry has continued writing about Christopher and his family for decades, producing ten novels in the series to date. A former editor-at-large for National Geographic, McCarry has written extensive nonfiction, and continues to write essays and book reviews for various national publications. Ark (2011) is his most recent novel.

The Overlook Press