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Paul Christopher #8
Shelley's Heart
On the eve of the Inauguration the losing candidate presents proof of the crime to his opponent, the incumbent President, and demands that he stand aside. The winner refuses and takes the oath of office, thereby setting in motion what may destroy him and his party, and even bring down the Constitution. From this crisis, master storyteller Charles McCarry, author of such classic thrillers as The Tears of Autumn and The Last Supper weaves a masterpiece of political intrigue. Shelley's Heart is so gripping in its realism and so striking in its foresight that McCarry's devoted readers may view this tale of love, murder, betrayal, and life-or-death struggles for the political soul of America as an act of prophecy.
543 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1995
177 people are currently reading
625 people want to read
About the author
Charles McCarry
30 books319 followersMcCarry served in the United States Army, where he was a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, was a small-town newspaperman, and was a speechwriter in the Eisenhower administration. From 1958 to 1967 he worked for the CIA, under deep cover in Europe, Asia, and Africa. However, his cover was not as a writer or journalist.
McCarry was editor-at-large for National Geographic and contributed pieces to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and other national publications.
McCarry was best known for a series of books concerning the life of super spy Paul Christopher. Born in Germany before WWII to a German mother and an American father, Christopher joins the CIA after the war and becomes one of its most effective spies. After launching an unauthorized investigation of the Kennedy assassination, Christopher becomes a pariah to the agency and a hunted man. Eventually, he spends ten years in a Chinese prison before being released and embarking on a solution to the mystery that has haunted him his entire life: the fate of his mother, who disappeared at the beginning of WWII. The books are notable for their historical detail and depiction of spycraft, as well as their careful and extensive examination of Christopher's relationship with his family, friends, wives, and lovers.
McCarry was editor-at-large for National Geographic and contributed pieces to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and other national publications.
McCarry was best known for a series of books concerning the life of super spy Paul Christopher. Born in Germany before WWII to a German mother and an American father, Christopher joins the CIA after the war and becomes one of its most effective spies. After launching an unauthorized investigation of the Kennedy assassination, Christopher becomes a pariah to the agency and a hunted man. Eventually, he spends ten years in a Chinese prison before being released and embarking on a solution to the mystery that has haunted him his entire life: the fate of his mother, who disappeared at the beginning of WWII. The books are notable for their historical detail and depiction of spycraft, as well as their careful and extensive examination of Christopher's relationship with his family, friends, wives, and lovers.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
April 27, 2009
I really enjoyed this book both because it was well-written and suspenseful but also because of the unapologetic anti-communist bias. I don't like books that throw gratuitous political slurs around, catching you unaware in a scifi book or a murder mystery, but this is a political thriller with the author's viewpoint clearly available from the start so no one needs to read it who isn't up for that angle. Furthermore, the author has both the protagonists and antagonists as members of the same party so it's not a book on the offensive against a party so much as a subversive element from the left in American politics. But beyond the politics, it's a good book and I flew through it. I do think it could have been a smidgen tighter for about fifty pages in the middle but that could have been because I was reading for hours on end and my eyes were getting blurry!
October 14, 2020
I'm of two minds regarding Charles McCarry's 25 year old novel 'Shelley's Heart'. On the one hand, it's a top notch, intricately plotted political thriller with an astonishing amount of relevance to today's scene. On the other hand, it's too damn long (took me nearly a week to plod through it), some of the characters and situations are sort of silly, and there's not enough action. I've loved McCarry's novels 'starring' Paul Christopher and found Shelley's Heart to be a worthwhile read, but it's not for everyone.
The short storyline synopsis is that a US presidential election is 'stolen' in the incumbent's favor, his opponent finds out about it and brings it to his attention prior to the inauguration, the president goes through with the inauguration, there's an impeachment, an inevitable power struggle, rumors of a 'palace coup', and an incredible amount of duplicity, backstabbing, and the usual business for which DC is known. Along the way we encounter an Ouija board, a new hippie-ish Supreme Court chief, a Valkyrie-like relative of Paul Christopher, a couple of dangerous yet educated young women, an alkie House Speaker who has only days to live, a LBJ-type president, the Ricardo Montlban-sounding lawyer of the president, the ex-president who was cheated out of this election, and various other strange and interesting folk (thankfully, the author provided a roster of names and positions, which I referenced probably a hundred times). The plot is revealed in slow motion as the impeachment trial takes place while other investigations are occurring at the same time.
As I read the initial chapters, I was pretty pumped since Shelley's Heart seemed to be a prescient look at the political process we're seemingly up to our eyeballs in 25 years after the book's release. However, as the story evolved I became more interested in the labyrinthian plotting involved in constructing the many layers and sub-plots in the story. At the end, I was happy to put it down but also glad at how the conclusion, as lacking in fireworks as it was, wrapped things up. Shelley's Heart is a good one for McCarry fans and those who like their political thrillers dense and complex.
The short storyline synopsis is that a US presidential election is 'stolen' in the incumbent's favor, his opponent finds out about it and brings it to his attention prior to the inauguration, the president goes through with the inauguration, there's an impeachment, an inevitable power struggle, rumors of a 'palace coup', and an incredible amount of duplicity, backstabbing, and the usual business for which DC is known. Along the way we encounter an Ouija board, a new hippie-ish Supreme Court chief, a Valkyrie-like relative of Paul Christopher, a couple of dangerous yet educated young women, an alkie House Speaker who has only days to live, a LBJ-type president, the Ricardo Montlban-sounding lawyer of the president, the ex-president who was cheated out of this election, and various other strange and interesting folk (thankfully, the author provided a roster of names and positions, which I referenced probably a hundred times). The plot is revealed in slow motion as the impeachment trial takes place while other investigations are occurring at the same time.
As I read the initial chapters, I was pretty pumped since Shelley's Heart seemed to be a prescient look at the political process we're seemingly up to our eyeballs in 25 years after the book's release. However, as the story evolved I became more interested in the labyrinthian plotting involved in constructing the many layers and sub-plots in the story. At the end, I was happy to put it down but also glad at how the conclusion, as lacking in fireworks as it was, wrapped things up. Shelley's Heart is a good one for McCarry fans and those who like their political thrillers dense and complex.
August 19, 2014
Cognitive dissonance. I'm so used to political fiction where the bad guys are invariably rich, greedy businessmen and it's the conservatives that are the bigots that a novel where elitist left-wingers are behind all the nefarious plots is disorienting, even though I tend to share McCarry's world view. Also, this was written in the 90s, back when the idea of a president ordering the assassination of a foreign terrorist was enough to get him impeached, rather than applauded. Stolen elections and constitutional coups are timely issues as well, but I doubt most progressive readers could get far enough into this to have their assumptions challenged. Turns out there are a bunch of previous books in this series, all of which I was completely unaware of.
June 21, 2014
Another fun read by Charles McCarry. Found a hardcover copy of this one at a used book sale for only 2 bucks and snapped it up. At 558 pages I was a little intimidated to begin, so it sat around a while. I'm not one to read "Political Thrillers" either, which also didn't get me to rush to it.
What fun it was to read. McCarry has a straightforward writing style, much less esoteric than, say, LeCarre, and he created a very interesting plot for Shelley's Heart . It's quite engaging, with each chapter no more than three or four pages, just enough revealed to make you want to move onto the next chapter. I wouldn't even classify it as a pure political thriller; there's a lot of mystery and, if you will, crime solving aspects to it.
There are a few less believable aspects to the plot, and a few scenes that cause one to raise one's eyebrows, but I just suspended my belief and considered it as being part of the fun. I really didn't even care how the story ended; it could have gone in several directions and it would have been fine with me. This is one of those books where it's just the joy of the story unfolding that makes it a pleasure to read, and not so much where it ends up.
I looked at some other Goodreads reviews after I finished, just to see what others thought. There are some references in Shelley's Heart to characters from McCarry's previous novels, but this story is not meant to be a continuation of anything. It stands on its own, and none of his other books needs to be read before jumping into this one.
A good one to take with you to the beach (even for such a hefty size).
What fun it was to read. McCarry has a straightforward writing style, much less esoteric than, say, LeCarre, and he created a very interesting plot for Shelley's Heart . It's quite engaging, with each chapter no more than three or four pages, just enough revealed to make you want to move onto the next chapter. I wouldn't even classify it as a pure political thriller; there's a lot of mystery and, if you will, crime solving aspects to it.
There are a few less believable aspects to the plot, and a few scenes that cause one to raise one's eyebrows, but I just suspended my belief and considered it as being part of the fun. I really didn't even care how the story ended; it could have gone in several directions and it would have been fine with me. This is one of those books where it's just the joy of the story unfolding that makes it a pleasure to read, and not so much where it ends up.
I looked at some other Goodreads reviews after I finished, just to see what others thought. There are some references in Shelley's Heart to characters from McCarry's previous novels, but this story is not meant to be a continuation of anything. It stands on its own, and none of his other books needs to be read before jumping into this one.
A good one to take with you to the beach (even for such a hefty size).
May 4, 2017
This is, in my humble opinion, the worst book by Charles McCarry; I have read many of them, some I did like quite a lot, some less but I never stumbled into such a cockamamie story like Shelley's heart. The plot is clumsy, the situations totally implausible, the characters ranging from insignificant to ridiculous.
Just as a few examples:
@ a manic obsessive appointed Chief Justice, assisted by two loony Valkyrie paralegal, who runs private, secret investigations on the President of the USA using, among other systems, spiritic sessions with Ouija board
@ a secret sect, kind of Masonic society, plotting a conspiracy to overthrow the US democracy "in the name of the poet" (Shelley)
@ an impeachment process ran like no banana republic would
The ending is also rather disappointing, just flat and without any final twist able to add some spice to an insipid story.
So, if anyone is going to start reading McCarry from Shelley's heart, he is not off to a good start....I would rather suggest to start from any other good story of the Paul Christopher series and to simply pass n this.
Just as a few examples:
@ a manic obsessive appointed Chief Justice, assisted by two loony Valkyrie paralegal, who runs private, secret investigations on the President of the USA using, among other systems, spiritic sessions with Ouija board
@ a secret sect, kind of Masonic society, plotting a conspiracy to overthrow the US democracy "in the name of the poet" (Shelley)
@ an impeachment process ran like no banana republic would
The ending is also rather disappointing, just flat and without any final twist able to add some spice to an insipid story.
So, if anyone is going to start reading McCarry from Shelley's heart, he is not off to a good start....I would rather suggest to start from any other good story of the Paul Christopher series and to simply pass n this.
January 1, 2020
5.0 stars!
Best political fiction I've ever read!
Won't go into plot. You can read other reviews. More than any novel I've ever read, Shelley's Heart taught me how Washington DC insiders work and think. For example. Harvard Professor grooms Leftist student. Student gets better than deserved grades. The Professor installs student into management of government job in DOJ, FBI, or CIA. Now the student owes the Professor favors, over decades the Prof installs scores of Leftists former students into the unelected positions of the government. Occasionally, a former student winds up in a Presidential cabin position. I learned how leaks work, sexual blackmail setups, and multiple treaties on political philosophy.
Shelley's Heart has it all. Controversial Supreme Court nominees, stolen elections, impeachment and secret fraternities. Sounds familiar? Published in 1995, Shelley's Heart is nothing less than prophetical. Resplendent page turner, perfect accompaniment to Trump's tenure!
Best political fiction I've ever read!
Won't go into plot. You can read other reviews. More than any novel I've ever read, Shelley's Heart taught me how Washington DC insiders work and think. For example. Harvard Professor grooms Leftist student. Student gets better than deserved grades. The Professor installs student into management of government job in DOJ, FBI, or CIA. Now the student owes the Professor favors, over decades the Prof installs scores of Leftists former students into the unelected positions of the government. Occasionally, a former student winds up in a Presidential cabin position. I learned how leaks work, sexual blackmail setups, and multiple treaties on political philosophy.
Shelley's Heart has it all. Controversial Supreme Court nominees, stolen elections, impeachment and secret fraternities. Sounds familiar? Published in 1995, Shelley's Heart is nothing less than prophetical. Resplendent page turner, perfect accompaniment to Trump's tenure!
February 6, 2020
During the past year I have become a Charles McCarry fan. I enjoy his insight into the espionage/spy world based on his experience as a covert CIA agent. This book, however, has a minimum of tradecraft and a large helping of political intrigue. The book was written in 1994-95 and focuses on the impeachment of a sitting president. Sound familiar? As we are introduced to the characters on both sides of the aisle, we discover many are members of a secret society at Yale University. The author's in-depth knowledge of constitutional rules and processes shines bright and lends a flavor of authenticity. The novel includes many twists and turns. As always the quality of the writing is high. I enjoyed the story and I recommend the book. My only criticism is the length - it could be edited down by 10-20%.
January 15, 2018
I've been reading all of McCarry. He has the most eerily ability to predict so much that has come true: suicide bombers, terrorists taking over airplanes, bombings in cities, impeachment of the President--with members of a university secret society pulling the strings of the players. He also has a habit of bringing characters back or having characters from other work finally mingling with others. The bulk of this novel spends time on an illegal election and the impeachment of the President. McCarry has done his homework on the equivalent of Robert's Rules, but as a reader you really get bogged down in the detail. I kept wishing for the action to move to another area or move forward. McCarry writes with intelligence and sensitivity. He's well worth learning about.
March 27, 2019
A President who has “pet” names for everyone, both political parties interested only in their own group and individual self-preservation, sexual improprieties both real and part of a plot, conspiracy theories - both rumored and real, men and women of wealth and power trying to manipulate the process for control of government - seemingly ripped from the scripts of any “news” program today...and yet I kept having to check the copyright page to confirm this book was written in 1995!! Finished at 2 AM because I couldn’t find a stopping point, fascinated, amazed, disgusted, and depressed with the realization that all the muck of today was in play, or at least, in thought almost 25 years ago. Great book!
January 9, 2023
Although not my favorite McCarry book (that would be "The Tears of Autumn") what a masterpiece this is! What a writer! This is not a quick, fun read, not to say there's not some fun and quite a few laughs. Filled with political intrigue, mystery women, vacuous politicians, not everyone is who they seem to be. The hero turns out to be .... well, you'd better read the book and find out for yourself. I took my time reading in the beginning but about 3/4ths of the way through, I couldn't put it down.
October 9, 2023
This was long but worth reading. I referred to the list of characters many times and got lost in who did what several times. I doubt this is too unreal to believe it could be possible. The aftermath of our last election was a close example of the events in this novel. I think this was about the left when it was written but perhaps now it would be about the maga politicians. Andrew Johnson and Nixon were examples of impeachment processes and when this was written, that was as bad as could be referred to. Interesting and timely even so many years after publication.
October 16, 2024
This prescient 1995 political thriller features an election stolen by computer fraud, an Ivy League-based conspiracy to take over the U.S> government, tons of backroom manipulation, politically inspired violence, and a strategic manipulation of the Constitution of dramatic proportion at the end to resolve the crisis. It fits right in to the current political scene. It's long at 570+ pages, but is well-written and moves quickly, so it's hard to put down. I ran across the book in a list of "best political thrillers" and I'm glad I tracked it down.
December 3, 2017
This book was recommended to me by a co-worker. Due to other obligations, I stopped and started this story several times, but once I was able to give it full attention, I was hooked. The list of characters listed near the front is very helpful, as there are many. This is a novel of political intrigue, written in 1995, but it seemed scarily relevant to our present day. I am still somewhat puzzled by the person and significance of Zarah in the story. I enjoyed the book very much.
September 24, 2018
3+
With just a touch of restraint this could have been another very good
book by McCarry.
Sadly, for me at least, it was just a bit longer than it needed to be,
several of the major characters were simply too cartoonish to allow
suspension of disbelief and it quickly leaped from radical ideology
to heights of "idiotology" never seen in his books and not needed
here to carry the plot.
With just a touch of restraint this could have been another very good
book by McCarry.
Sadly, for me at least, it was just a bit longer than it needed to be,
several of the major characters were simply too cartoonish to allow
suspension of disbelief and it quickly leaped from radical ideology
to heights of "idiotology" never seen in his books and not needed
here to carry the plot.
July 25, 2024
Prescient
Intelligence services messing with elections?
Questions about an election legitimacy?
A leftist cabal ousting a sitting president from office?
Assassination attempts?
Leviathan rearing its ugly head?
McCarry imagined it all in 1995. Who knew in 2024 reality would surpass fiction?
Intelligence services messing with elections?
Questions about an election legitimacy?
A leftist cabal ousting a sitting president from office?
Assassination attempts?
Leviathan rearing its ugly head?
McCarry imagined it all in 1995. Who knew in 2024 reality would surpass fiction?
September 18, 2018
This book took me almost 3 weeks to read. I think that shows how much I did not like this one. It was long and hard to follow. Even at the end I still think I was confused about all the characters and how they fit together. Not recommended at all.
November 6, 2022
McCarry rarely disappoints, and here he is at the top of his game. Epic sweep of story, prescient in the details, nice understanding of government and DMV geography. It does show its (his?) age in the treatment of women. It would make a great mini-series, but is way too politically incorrect
August 20, 2024
Amazing story that could mirror our current political climate…. Plenty of plot lines and twists, but dragged out a bit too much for me. Could have been 100 plus pages less and still got everything into it.
September 15, 2024
Another complicated tale by Charles McCarry
You will be kept busy keeping track of the cast of characters. Overall a great thriller. A bit too much questionable discussion of constitutional legalities.
You will be kept busy keeping track of the cast of characters. Overall a great thriller. A bit too much questionable discussion of constitutional legalities.
January 5, 2025
The most amazing literary accomplishment I have ever read.
The most amazing literary accomplishment I have ever read. McCarry’s grasp as a professional spy’s understanding of people and his analysis of events has created, in my opinion, as fine a reading experience as can be.
The most amazing literary accomplishment I have ever read. McCarry’s grasp as a professional spy’s understanding of people and his analysis of events has created, in my opinion, as fine a reading experience as can be.
September 5, 2025
Long and somewhat convoluted, lots of political intrigue. Despite this, I was never bored and always eager to pick it back up. Hard to review objectively because this is so in my wheelhouse that I was never not going to like it!
April 26, 2019
Boring! Didn't get into it until the last 20 pages! It took me forever to read this book. I didn't care about the characters, I didn't care about the plot. Boring!
November 24, 2020
Any other time I would have given this a 4 star rating... reading it in November '20 was just too good to be true. I had to keep checking the copyright date.
December 25, 2023
hardly ever give five stars but McCarry excels in this one
September 14, 2024
Bailed 1/3rd of the way in. plodding, fraught with trite right wing grievances and misogyny.
December 14, 2024
Good but tedious
I never really got into the story until. I had read almost 75%. The ending was fantastic. Doubt I will read another of this author's work. But you never know..
I never really got into the story until. I had read almost 75%. The ending was fantastic. Doubt I will read another of this author's work. But you never know..
August 3, 2024
One of the best books I have read in a long time. This book written in 1995 feels like what's going on today. Truly amazing it's like McCarry saw the future. I will be thinking about it for a long time. It kept me up at night reading.
May 16, 2021
[Imported automatically from my blog. Some formatting there may not have translated here.]
Another pick off National Review's 2010 Conservative Lit 101 list.
Charles McCarry wrote this back in 1995, and it's set in the early 21st Century USA. It's billed as a "thriller" right there on the front cover, but there's not much of the usual mayhem typical of the genre. Yes, there's a grisly murder on page 48, but it's pretty much forgotten until the climax about 500 pages (!) later. Other than that, it's conspiratorial skullduggery as a radical plot is afoot to seize the Presidency is afoot.
So it's a political thriller, reminiscent of good old Allen Drury, and the prime plot mover is the apparent theft of the recent Presidential election, accomplished by hacking of the computerized voting results in a few key states. The official loser decides to challenge the result on the eve of the Inauguration, throwing Washington into chaos. (Coincidence: I was reading this concurrently with the IRL headlines about recounts in states Hillary lost and dark allegations about "hacking".)
McCarry's other prognostications about our time are entertainingly off. Ganymede is being colonized! But when someone wants to slip computer information to a confidante, the preferred medium is … a diskette.
And one of the plot points is an alleged Presidential order to assassinate a loony Arab leader who's gotten hold of a couple of nukes. This is seen as a bad, unacceptable thing, grounds for impeachment. From the post-9/11 viewpoint, where a President can order a drone strike on an (admittedly nasty) American citizen without any legal niceties involved, and everyone goes ho-hum, that's a little dissonant.
I was a little bemused to discover the book was number 8 in the "Paul Christopher" series. Usually, I hate reading book N in a series when I haven't read books 1 .. N-1. It's OK, the book works fine as a standalone, although there are a lot of references to previous events which I imagine are described in the previous entries. Slight spoiler: Paul Christopher never actually shows up, but his daughter does.
September 14, 2021
Shelley's Heart is the sequel to McCarry's The Better Angels. It presents us with three U.S. Presidents to ponder there is the left leaning but unnamed incumbent President, "known for his appetites...," who "had tested positive for an incurable sexually transmitted disease. He had kept this fact entirely to himself for more than a year." He is defeated by right leaning Franklin Mallory the present incumbent, who was accused of "outing" the scandal to left leaning journalist, Ross Macalaster. However, the reveal was really "by a manipulative radical activist who had never thought that the stricken President was militant enough." The third President is Bedford Forrest "Frosty" Lockwood, who has been elected thanks to a vote manipulation, which we have learned about in the earlier novel.
As Shelley's Heart opens, the vote manipulation has been discovered through a complex and extremely expensive surveillance system which had been secretly installed by Mallory. There is much twisted prescience in this novel which was first published in 1995. There is a intensely divided political environment, "mutual paranoia," with incumbent President Mallory who had made a huge fortune in business on the political far right disputing his failed re-election, with a delineated impeachment almost identical to the recent actual impeachments, with a Senate divided 50/50, and with a intricate conspiracy mixed into the brew.
The conspirators are elite Yale alumni members of the secret Shelley Society, one member selected of each graduating class over many years. The members rely on
the mention of Trelawny's plucking of Shelley's heart from his funeral pyre as a coded membership identifier. Each member is obligated to obey the request of any other who makes the asking "in the name of the poet."
The society is core to the plot of the novel, but there is much more. I think the novel should be read as an interesting foretaste of the political events that happened more than twenty years in its future and with the added pleasure of just enjoying a good read.
As Shelley's Heart opens, the vote manipulation has been discovered through a complex and extremely expensive surveillance system which had been secretly installed by Mallory. There is much twisted prescience in this novel which was first published in 1995. There is a intensely divided political environment, "mutual paranoia," with incumbent President Mallory who had made a huge fortune in business on the political far right disputing his failed re-election, with a delineated impeachment almost identical to the recent actual impeachments, with a Senate divided 50/50, and with a intricate conspiracy mixed into the brew.
The conspirators are elite Yale alumni members of the secret Shelley Society, one member selected of each graduating class over many years. The members rely on
the mention of Trelawny's plucking of Shelley's heart from his funeral pyre as a coded membership identifier. Each member is obligated to obey the request of any other who makes the asking "in the name of the poet."
The society is core to the plot of the novel, but there is much more. I think the novel should be read as an interesting foretaste of the political events that happened more than twenty years in its future and with the added pleasure of just enjoying a good read.
September 19, 2010
this dreck is the reason why I don't trust Nancy Pearl. If you like the spectacle of grotesque puppets stumbling through a cryptofacist fantasy, read it immediately.
Did you know that a Fabian-like Yale Eating club wants to impose its elitist socialist vision on this here nation, and the only person that can stop it is the super-rich Republican ex-President who is limned with all the humanistic attention to detail that is so evident in Tom Clancy's most manly fare? He's almost killed by two lesbian law students who are also trained assassins. I wish that I were joking.
Trash. I wish I could laugh about it. Though the bits on the beltway internecine titfortat are good, the premise is so rotten that i could barely stifle a retch. Read 100 pp, skimmed the rest, and was angry that I even spent that amount of time with it.
Did you know that a Fabian-like Yale Eating club wants to impose its elitist socialist vision on this here nation, and the only person that can stop it is the super-rich Republican ex-President who is limned with all the humanistic attention to detail that is so evident in Tom Clancy's most manly fare? He's almost killed by two lesbian law students who are also trained assassins. I wish that I were joking.
Trash. I wish I could laugh about it. Though the bits on the beltway internecine titfortat are good, the premise is so rotten that i could barely stifle a retch. Read 100 pp, skimmed the rest, and was angry that I even spent that amount of time with it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews