There is something disconcerting, even embarrassing, about having so much affection for an author that writing about him becomes too great a challenge. Words of praise become inadequate, almost juvenile, in their failed attempts to adequately describe the brilliance of a given work, somewhat like trying to explain the love one feels in a perfect marriage, or at the birth of a first child. This fear of losing all critical faculties strikes like an arrow in the heart whenever I’m confronted with a new work by America’s greatest espionage writer, Charles McCarry. It is no good thing to be seen as obsequious or awed when writing about a book, but there is no credit in finding flaws in an object of rare beauty, either. While it is indeed possible that there is no such thing as a perfect creation by the mind and hands of man, a scarce few works of art come closer than others, and Mr. McCarry has approached that ideal on a number of occasions, bringing joy and understanding to those fortunate enough to have encountered his novels.

His latest book, “Christopher’s Ghosts” (Overlook Press, 272 pages, $27.95), another distinguished chapter in the very full life of his series character, Paul Christopher, cannot be read in one sitting for several reasons, none of which have to do with its modest length.

First, its two parts are separated by 20 years (1939 and then 1959), with each possessing a different tone and pace. Part 1 finds the 16-year-old Christopher in Germany as that country races inexorably toward war. Here, his noble and sophisticated family and the lovely daughter of a Jewish doctor with whom he has fallen in love find themselves in relentless danger of being crushed by the country’s gigantic secret machinery and the tiny, petty cogs that allow it to function.

The battle with Nazis moves to the Cold War in Part 2, with a mature Christopher in the CIA waging a virtually identical battle with the communists. Although you will find it difficult to tear yourself away, I recommend reading this part on a different day or else you will feel as if you’ve been to a two-part concert: first Richard Wagner, then Louis Armstrong.

You also will need enough time to savor the poetry, then reread some sentences, then call out to someone you care about to listen to their loveliness and profundity.

When Paul first sees Alexa, he thinks, “She was pretty. If she had been happy, she would have been beautiful.”

Later, as an important plot point is being worked out, Mr. McCarry writes, “In operations, as in war, plans had a short existence. The future did not issue warnings to the present.”

Describing the oppressive atmosphere in Berlin (no matter whether under Nazi or Soviet rule), Mr. McCarry observes, “Pedestrians scuttled along the sidewalks as if in a

hurry to get out of sight before their permits to be seen in public expired.”

Finally, it’s reasonable to think that, as Part 1 concludes, you will simply need to rest, to catch your breath, as the suspense, the unrelenting terror, are utterly draining. “Christopher’s Ghosts” is not unlike “1984” in that the protagonists are the victims of a kind of cruel capriciousness that has no boundaries because it has no consequences. Pure whim can cause someone to be killed on the spot or taken away to a place of unknowable horror. Enemies of freedom, and haters of happiness rule the immediate universe, enabled by cowardly sycophants hoping to avoid similar fates.

Major Stutzer, an SS officer with no apparent limit to his love of cruelty and hatred of Jews, works for Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the Gestapo, who has fallen mightily for Lori, Paul’s mother. It would be a simple matter to have Hubbard, her husband, eliminated, but he arrogantly woos her instead, intent on having her fall in love with him.

It is this devoted infatuation that temporarily, at least, lets the Christopher’s and Paul’s young love survive and plan an escape to America, but the omnipresent Stutzer is single-mindedly determined to prevent it.

It gives no secret away to say Paul makes it to America, as his adventures in the CIA have previously been recounted in such masterpieces as “The Tears of Autumn,” “The Secret Lovers,” “The Last Supper,” and other novels. He has the moral and intellectual makeup of his parents and is the type of CIA agent that has vanished from literature: intelligent, sensitive, honorable, multilingual, nonviolent, and even a poet.

Inevitably haunted by his past, he sees ghosts, as he did as a frightened child. It was his opinion that “the dead are not happy.”

How could they be? They won’t have the opportunity to read “Christopher’s Ghosts.”

Mr. Penzler is the proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan and the series editor of the annual “Best American Mystery Stories.” He can be reached at ottopenzler@mysteriousbookshop.com.