The Mulberry Bush Hardcover – October 27, 2015

Charles McCarry is not for me. I have read a few of his books, and my reaction has been mixed. It seems to me he is trying too hard to write a cerebral spy novel. Mulberry Bush is a bit different because it adds South America of all places into the mix of the usual USA v Russia wrestling match. The first third is quite good, a nice set-up. Our hero is the son of a failed CIA operative, a brilliant guy who pranked the wrong people in the Agency. He pays for it big time.Junior is a brilliant guy also who has an ear for languages and knows just about every tongue spoken in the Middle East and the suburbs, and he's well educated, smart, handsome etc. etc. Planning to get his revenge for his Dad's forced separation from the CIA, he worms his way into the Agency and is very successful in his Middle East assignments, meaning he doesn't get killed and he handles his agents well. But he goes through a rough patch and is assigned as a contact for a low level, but gorgeous Argentinian government employee, Luz. Soon they are having sex 5 or 6 times a day (I kid you not), and then he meets her family. And some Russians.And things start to slow down - not for our hero, rather for the reader. He meets some interesting characters including a retired agent, and rather coincidentally his father's former boss, and a Russian priest with whom he has long walks on Roosevelt Island in the Potomac. And Luz's "guardian" . And all of a sudden the story is about events that took place years ago in the revolutionary days. Was Luz's Mom really thrown out of an airplane because Dad wouldn't reveal the names of members of his gang of terrorists/revolutionaries? And eventually there is a very long climactic explanation of What Really Happened.. Though there are four brief action scenes with gunfire, explosions, knifing, and a grenade, a lot more than I recall from previous McCarry books, the bottomline is that I got to about the 75% point in the book and just wanted it to end so I could read something else. I just didn't care at all what happened in Argentina 20 years ago. The plot seemed rather silly - the son's career ambitions are to embarrass the Agency for the punishment doled out to his father 20 years ago. Get over it. And the characters were all very sad and empty to me, as dead on the inside as many of the victims in the story past and present.

Charles McCarry is certainly one of the most under-rated espionge thriller writers we have. His series of Paul Christopher novels are among the best you will ever read. If you enjoy Alan Furst, you will find McCarry equally so. "The Mulberry Bush" is a highly-engaging story of revenge, with plot twists coming one after the other. The narrator of the novel wishes to avenge his father, who was laughed out of CIA headquarters years before, leading to disgrace and a downward spiral that is painful to behold. McCarry has a wonderful way with language: the narrator and his father are discussing a person whom the father describes as "interesting, in a one-dinner-party sort of way". Besides the writing and the plot twists, the novel has great pacing, and the reader rarely feels bogged down, as the action shifts from Argentina to Washington, DC to Europe and back to South America. Read "The Mulberry Bush", then read the rest of McCarry's novels. You will not be disappointed.

I've lived in Buenos Aires for a long time and was hoping to read about some characters from here, since I find most Argentines pretty one-dimensional with knee-jerk reactions to authority (they love/hate it and are trapped in late adolescent passive agressiveness). The depiction of the various Argentines in the book don't connect very well with my own experiences, which makes their behavior strange to me. But the big problem seems to be that the story is bigger than the writer. There are too many characters brought on stage to explain to a man of varying attention span information he either doesn't understand, can't use, or forgets, At the end the result is that as a reader, i don't much care if any of them lives or dies. The simple disappearance of Luz is unforgiveable when the writer knows the reader has sort of come to care about what happens to her and she's a bit more interesting than the male Argentine characters. Ah, well. Getting close to deadline, so might as well wrap it up. Out the door with you.

I have liked all of the McCarty novel I have read, especially both The Tears of Autumn and this one. The plotting was really good here and the characters more different and interesting than those in most spy novels. Excellent read.

McCarry is a very good writer, with a strong imagination for situations in which rather strangely motivated people are described as doing things which are strange, even by their standards I have long admired his espionage writing and recognized the influence of his early history in the game. This time, he seems to have made a potboiler which, while elegantly written, as always, is a fantasy with inconsistent character motivation and psychologically unrealistic behavior. I was disappointed. I would still buy anything he writes, but this is not a good example of even his lesser efforts. On the other hand, maybe I am naïve and do not recognize that it is a parody of current espionage fiction that seeks to thrill with violence....CIA case officers do not walk around with big pistols in denied territory or decide policy, even at the division level, such as setting traps for opposition intelligence operatives, I think maybe it is a parody

As a loyal follower and reader of Charles McCarry, I was happy to see a new release. The book didn't disappoint me.He writes about the Company. A clandestine US Government group of spies. He shows them with all their flaws and shortcomings as well as their cunning.His lead character is well developed, complex and interesting.The South American setting is refreshing and well researched.I will recommend this book to all McCarry fans.

Lots of authentic detail and very clever plot. The main character is not entirely believable but some of the subsidiary characters are really well drawn.

Did Charles suddenly realise he was late for a bus or left the iron on, as a very hurried and unsatisfactory conclusion? It had been going so well too.

Great plot, gritty and well written...

Good atmospherics and fairly good tale, if a bit scooby-doo ish. Would buy sequel

Alternative reality of a manipulative world is the subject of this book where trust is non-existent and paranoia reigns. From presumably first hand experience McCarry paints a picture of an organisation and events that are so far removed from the world I know that it is either convincing or otherwise delegated into oblivion as a figment of McCarry’s imagination. The story is very well written with a good development of individual persona. I found this book difficult to put down.