McCready's double play

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McCreadys Doppelspiel is a novel by Frederick Forsyth that was published in 1991 by Bantam Books under the title The Deceiver and is published in Germany by Piper.

With a brief framework, the book combines four self-contained stories that Forsyth originally designed for English television. The book focuses on the work of Sam McCready, head of the Deception, Disinformation and Psychological Operations division of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).

As in earlier works, Forsyth skilfully analyzes the work of the secret services, shows their actions and thinking, explains the connections between East-West conflict and terror groups; he shocks with the brutal logic with which the secret services operate and allows himself a few critical swipes at his big American brother. In the last story Forsyth shows himself from a more cheerful side. He tells a political farce from post-colonial Great Britain. Enriched with bizarre people and incidents, the story under the Caribbean sun takes on humorous traits.

action

A hearing before an internal commission forms the framework for Forsyth's novel. Against the background of the rapidly changing political situation in 1990, McCready is to be deported into early retirement. On the basis of four operations for which he was responsible, the value of his work should be demonstrated once again.

Border crossings - Pride and Extreme Prejudice

A double agent within the Soviet Army wants to hand over important documents on an inspection tour through East Germany . McCready is well known to the Stasi and therefore, contrary to the regulations, sends the Cologne BND employee Bruno Morenz, with whom he has already worked several times, behind the iron curtain with forged papers in his place . He has no way of knowing that the honest officer had recently shot his mistress, a luxury prostitute , and her pimp . Morenz takes over the documents, but after a harmless traffic accident in Jena , he suffers a nervous breakdown and disappears from the scene. A feverish race begins between SIS and the curious Stasi. McCready researches a possible refuge and now travels to the GDR himself. He finds his old friend who has completely collapsed. Since he cannot take him with him, he kills him with poisoned whiskey in order to save him interrogation and torture and barely escapes the search parties with the documents.

The Price of the Bride

Secret service agents refer to the knowledge of a defector as the bride price. Colonel Orlov, in a senior position in the KGB , has one of these in his luggage when he leaves during an official visit to Great Britain. However, he only wants to talk to the Americans. He is interrogated by the CIA for weeks and thoroughly examined until he is finally believed. Only Sam McCready still has doubts. He himself runs a double agent in the London embassy of the Soviet Union who expressly warns him against a false defector. This should destabilize the CIA and disrupt the relationship between the CIA and MI6. Washington doesn't want to hear about it; you are so angry about the distrust in London that you actually limit cooperation. Orlov drops his bomb after a few weeks: The KGB has had a spy in the CIA in what is now a very high position for years. Washington triumphs and frantically begins internal investigations. You can quickly find the relevant officer. McCready's agent has meanwhile left for Moscow. But McCready does not believe in his mistake and travels with a team to the Russian capital. There he made contact with his husband, who by no means returned to Russia voluntarily. He proves his loyalty to McCready, who smuggled him and his people out of the Soviet Union and saved him from arrest. But McCready is too late, the CIA leadership believed the KGB's sophisticated lie. The alleged KGB spy, who was actually completely innocent, has already been liquidated by a CIA killer. That Orlov will now follow him is no consolation for McCready.

A Casualty of War

The SIS learns of a large Libyan arms shipment to the IRA on behalf of the KGB . McCready is supposed to find out the details and stop the delivery. Against the opposition of his superiors, he recruits the former SAS sergeant Rowse, who tries his hand at writing a book and is avoided by the "establishment" as a polluter. That makes him the ideal man for McCready. With a cover story, Rowse contacts a middleman at the Soviet embassy in Vienna and appears as an alleged arms buyer. The idea is to induce the KGB to simply top up the already planned delivery for the IRA. Rowse is sent to Tripoli. While still at the airport, he is intercepted and interrogated by the Libyan secret service. He will then wait for news in a hotel in the mountains of Cyprus. There he has an affair with a very attractive tourist, otherwise nothing happens. After a few days, he actually receives the location and arrival time of a container in Germany. The Royal Navy can use it to identify the ship and land it in the Bay of Biscay. When boarding there is an exchange of fire, and the woman who Rowse had met and who was one of the arms smugglers dies.

Scorpions in Paradise - A Little Bit of Sunshine

The (fictional) Barclay Islands are still British territory, located somewhere between Florida, the Bahamas and Cuba, and should become independent in the new year. In the absence of candidates and parties of their own, two immigrants are running for the presidency. An American tourist - a Florida police officer - recognizes a professional killer in the wake of one of the candidates, but his hasty flight back to Miami ends in a fireball over the Caribbean Sea. A little later, the governor of the islands is also shot. McCready - actually on vacation in Florida - gets curious and flies to the island capital Sunshine on his own. There he meets a noticeably depressed mood. The population is not very enthusiastic about independence, and the other candidate for the presidency also surrounds himself with shady characters. Together with the colleague of the killed policeman, who is also investigating on his own, McCready finds out that the two presidential candidates are a cocaine smuggler and a Cuban agent who only seek the presidency for selfish purposes. Since he cannot bring both of them to court, McCready informs the now well-represented press, which is greedily pouncing on the scandal. Finally he makes himself governor for a day with a forged certificate and chases the gangsters off the island in an operetta-like performance. This means that independence has burst, much to the delight of the population (and to the considerable displeasure of the government in London). McCready also clarifies the governor's murder. An old lady who is highly esteemed by all islanders shot the unpopular official to draw the world's attention to what was going on in the Barclays. McCready decides to keep his knowledge to himself.

literature

  • Forsyth, Frederick: McCready's double play . Munich 2000, Piper, 493 pages, ISBN 3-492-23133-0 (paperback).
  • Forsyth, Frederick: The Deceiver . Reprint 1995 Bantam Books, 496 pages, ISBN 0-553-29742-2 (paperback).

filming

The British television broadcaster ITV produced a six-part series based on Forsyth's stories in 1989 and 1990 with Alan Howard in the role of Sam McCready, which was broadcast in Germany by ZDF .

  • 1989 Just Another Secret - Double Game
  • 1989 A Casualty of War - Dangerous Comeback
  • 1990 A Little Piece of Sunshine
  • 1990 The Price of the Bride - Dubious Dowry
  • 1990 Death has a Bad Reputation - The Summer of the Jackal
  • 1990 Pride and Extreme Prejudice - There is no going back