THE MIERNIK DOSSIER is a passport into the world of international espionage, of the agent and the double agent, of the double cross and triple cross, in which no man is what he seems, and what matters is not the information you receive, but whether the other side wants you to believe it or not. In short, a world in which the highly professional operatives are interested not so much in results but in the moves and counter-moves of The Game they play. Drop into this shadowy, cynical, supposedly sophisticated world a true innocent, an outsider who disregards all the rules of The Game and anything can happen. That is the theme of McCarry's taut and extraordinarily authentic coldwar espionage novel.
Paul Christopher, at the height of his powers as a secret agent, believes he knows who arranged the assassination and why. His theory is so destructive of the legend of the dead president, though, and so dangerous to the survival of foreign policy that he is ordered to desist from investigating. But Christopher is a man who lives by and for the truth, and his internal compunctions force him to the heart of the matter. He resigns from the Agency and embarks on a tour of investigation that takes him from Paris to Rome, Zurich, the Congo, and Saigon. Threatened by Kennedy's assassins and by his own government, Christopher follows the scent of his suspicion – one breath behind the truth, one step ahead of discovery and death.
