In a 1988 essay published in the "Washington Post", McCarry wrote, "1973 when I turned in the manuscript of my novel "The Tears of Autumn", [the publisher summoned me to New York and, in his office high above lower Park Avenue, banged the manuscript on his desk. 'This book is talky, it's slow, and nobody is going to believe a goddamn word of the plot,' he said. 'Where's the car chase? Where's the torture scene? Where's the sex? Where's the good Russian? Do you call this a thriller?' 'No,' I said. He didn't hear me."