Code Name: Papa: My Extraordinary Life While Hiding in Plain Sight
by John MurrayPublished on September 30th 2015
Pages: 326
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Who'd have thought a bright, but fairly ordinary young man from middle class America who got just above average grades, dated the same girl throughout high school and went to church most Sundays, would grow up to eventually head a very secretive band of brave individuals--both men and women--who regularly put their lives on the line because they wanted to protect the rest of you. Yet that's what we did, often sacrificing our personal lives (four marriages for me, all in the book) and our health (countless broken bones, major surgeries, even death) to do it.
Meanwhile you're just going to have to call me "Papa" like everyone else around the globe has through most of those wildly unpredictable and dangerous years.
John Murray joined the Marines during the Vietnam War after working as a police officer in Florida. He becomes friends with two men named Jake and Bill. Over time he finds that Jake’s father is a powerful man who has the power to make things happen for him, including getting him out of the Army.
Eventually, Jake’s father offers them all a job. He heads a team of people who are the American branch of an international organization who kill people that governments can’t touch for various reasons. They will be given cover careers but will be out of contact with their families for much of the time and they can tell no one what they actually do.
Not a lot is explained about how it all works. Jobs are assigned but by whom? How is this funded? He says over and over that it isn’t illegal but defined how? I kept waiting for the plot twist. You know the one. In the thriller the main character is working for a shadowy organization and eventually realizes that he is on the side of evil. Spoiler alert – it doesn’t happen here.
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| Some of the locations discussed in Code Name Papa |
The stories of the jobs are told in a very matter of fact style. There is not much emotion expressed about the many people who died in these jobs except for when it was decided to kill innocent people to eliminate witnesses. The descriptions are brutal but clinical instead of sensationalized. It is a lot like listening to war veterans discuss battles.
When Jake’s father becomes ill, John takes over the running of the team. He decides how to recruit and train new members. He decides how to get jobs accomplished. He makes decisions like requiring all female team members to have a hysterectomy because periods are inconvenient but the men don’t need to be castrated (because I guess testosterone never leads to anything bad happening?).
I read the book in one day because I found it intriguing but the more you think about it the more disturbing it becomes. I wouldn’t recommend this for anyone who is bothered by reading about violence. The husband read this book also. Like me he was quickly absorbed into the story and read it over the course of a few days.
I received a copy of this book from the author for possible review.
