Mission to Paris (Night Soldiers, #12)

Oct 16, 2012 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-crime-thriller, european-setting-multiple-countries, france-french-theme-setting, war-conflict, read-2012

Jeepers, what a tough review to write. It's that 3-star curse: "I liked it just fine, thank you, Ma'am." My literary passions were neither inflamed nor offended, but I was happily entertained. And sometimes that's all I need from a read: an escape.

And if it comes in a package of sublimely crafted settings that conjure from history's clouds the darkening heart of 1938-39 Europe, with characters rendered as precisely as wood-block prints ("He was about fifty, Stahl guessed, with the thickening bo...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Jeanette rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fiction, europe-and-british-isles, world-war-two-fiction

2.5 stars
This is a bland treatment of an intriguing plot idea. Fredric Stahl is an American movie star with Austrian roots. In the fall of 1938, he goes to Paris for a film shoot. The Nazis railroad him into serving as propaganda to boost their image.

Furst spends the first 200 pages or so introducing an endless array of new characters, treating us to boring descriptions of various films, and taking us through tedious days on the movie set with Stahl and the film crew. The last 50 pages are more...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Liviu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012_release_read, read_2012, review_fbc, t1_recommended_2012

Read Mission to Paris and it was vintage Furst with a return to the non-pro agent (an Austrian-American actor) like in Blood of Victory or Dark Voyage. Of the two more recent ones, I loved the Warsaw novel but the Balkans one was less interesting for some reason; this one was excellent and while Dark Star is still Furst supreme and one of the best ever pre-WW2 novels I've read, this is top tier; a lot of predictability true but still very enjoyable as character and atmosphere rather than action...more

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May 10, 2013 Stuart rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked this up for an escape. I thought I'd get something from someone like John Le Carre or Graham Greene, a smart plot-filled yarn. But the writing here is wooden. Nothing flows. The descriptions are tedious. A Frederic March-type actor goes to Paris to make a movie just before the war. The Nazis are trying, by bribing those with influence, to make sure the French lie down like dogs when war begins. The Nazis try to use the actor in their pre-war scheme. That's a good idea for a book. But th...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Mary Theobald rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's 1938 and Hollywood leading man Fredric Stahl is sent to Paris to film a war picture. Pretty routine work for this successful actor, but Stahl quickly discovers that Paris in 1938 is a far cry from the Paris he knew a decade earlier. It is full of Germans and their French supporters working to undermine any attempt to strengthen France's military through bribes, bullying, blackmail, or murder. As hard as he tries, Stahl finds it impossible to stay out of the German political and propaganda m...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars

It is the late summer of 1938, Europe is about to explode, the Hollywood film star Fredric Stahl is on his way to Paris to make a movie for Paramount France. The Nazis know he’s coming—a secret bureau within the Reich Foreign Ministry has for years been waging political warfare against France, using bribery, intimidation, and corrupt newspapers to weaken French morale and degrade France’s will to defend herself.

For their purposes, Fredric Stahl is a perfect agent of influence, and they attack h

...more

It is the late summer of 1938, Europe is about to explode, the Hollywood film star Fredric Stahl is on his way to Paris to make a movie for Paramount France. The Nazis know he’s coming—a secret bureau within the Reich Foreign Ministry has for years been waging political warfare against France, using bribery, intimidation, and corrupt newspapers to weaken French morale and degrade France’s will to defend herself.

For their purposes, Fredric Stahl is a perfect agent of influence, and they attack him. What they don’t know is that Stahl, horrified by the Nazi war on Jews and intellectuals, has become part of an informal spy service being run out of the American embassy in Paris.

From Alan Furst, the bestselling author, often praised as the best spy novelist ever, comes a novel that’s truly hard to put down. Mission to Paris includes beautifully drawn scenes of romance and intimacy, and the novel is alive with extraordinary characters: the German Baroness von Reschke, a famous hostess deeply involved in Nazi clandestine operations; the assassins Herbert and Lothar; the Russian film actress and spy Olga Orlova; the Hungarian diplomat and spy, Count Janos Polanyi; along with the French cast of Stahl’s movie, German film producers, and the magnetic women in Stahl’s life, the socialite Kiki de Saint-Ange and the émigré Renate Steiner.

But always at the center of the novel is the city of Paris, the heart and soul of Europe—its alleys and bistros, hotels grand and anonymous, and the Parisians, living every night as though it was their last. As always, Alan Furst brings to life both a dark time in history and the passion of the human hearts that fought to survive it.

Advance praise for *Mission to Paris

“The writing in Mission to Paris, sentence after sentence, page after page, is dazzling. If you are a John le Carré fan, this is definitely a novel for you.”—James Patterson

“I am a huge fan of Alan Furst. Furst is the best in the business—the most talented espionage novelist of our generation.”—Vince Flynn

Praise for Alan Furst

“Unfolds like a vivid dream . . . One couldn’t ask for a more engrossing novel.”—The Wall Street Journal, about Spies of the Balkans

“Though set in a specific place and time, Furst’s books are like Chopin’s nocturnes: timeless, transcendent, universal. One does not so much read them as fall under their spell.”—Los Angeles Times, about The Spies of Warsaw

“Alan Furst’s novels swing a beam into the shadows at the edges of the great events leading to World War II. Readers come knowing he’ll deliver effortless narrative.”—USA Today, about The Foreign Correspondent

“Positively bristles with plot, characters and atmosphere . . . Dark Voyage has the ingredients of several genres—the mystery, the historical novel, the espionage thriller, the romance—but it rises above all of them.”—The Washington Post, about Dark Voyage

“No other espionage writer touches [Furst’s] stylish forays into Budapest and Berlin, Moscow and Paris. No other writer today captures so well the terror and absurdity of the spy, the shabby tension and ennui of émigré communities at the time. His characters are hopeless, lethal, charming. His voice is, above all, knowing.”—Boston Sunday Globe, about Blood of Victory*

Amazon.com Review

Guest Reviewer: Justin Cronin on Mission to Paris by Alan Furst
*Justin Cronin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Passage, Mary and O’Neil (which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Stephen Crane Prize), and The Summer Guest. Other honors for his writing include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Whiting Writers’ Award. A Distinguished Faculty Fellow at Rice University, he divides his time between Houston, Texas, and Cape Code, Massachusetts.*

Fans of Alan Furst are a passionate lot, and I count myself among them. Put a group of Furst’s readers in a room, and before long they will be ardently advocating for their favorites (I always come out swinging for The World at Night), only to change their minds, and change them again, as they are reminded of an especially harrowing episode in The Polish Officer, or a perfect turn of phrase in Blood of Victory, or a sumptuous love scene in The Spies of Warsaw.

So which of Furst’s novels is his best? In my opinion, it’s an eleven-way tie.

Now, make that twelve.

Furst’s elegant thrillers of World War II Europe are often grouped with the works Graham Greene and John le Carre for the literary quality of his prose. The comparison is apt, but Furst is really one of a kind: a novelist whose body of work has recast his genre, elevating it to the level of literature. He has a way of getting everything right, putting every sentence to flawless use with a compact, suggestive style. In just a few brush strokes, Furst can capture the essence of a character—man or woman, friend or foe, Gestapo officer or society doyenne—and his ability to evoke a setting makes me weep with envy. Furst’s foggy Paris streets and glittering salons aren’t just places we see; we actually seem to visit them, bathing in their rich atmospheres. When a Furst character steps into a café in the 16th Arrondissment, you can practically smell the Gauloises smoke wafting from the pages.

But what truly sets Furst apart is his characters’ alignment with their circumstances. Like every great novelist, he understands that history is an overlay of private lives and public events, and therein lies the richest, most morally edifying human drama. Furst’s protagonists aren’t professional spies. Dashing, yes. Romantic, to be sure. Capable of the bon mot, without doubt. But in their hearts, they are men and women like the rest of us, adrift in the currents of their lives. It’s the exigencies of war, with all its political murk and unlikely gunpoint bedfellows, that ignite them to personal heroism. You can hear them saying, with existential fatalism, “Well, it’s been a marvelous life—wonderful food, sumptuous parties, and surprising nights of love—but I guess it’s over now. I’ll have to become something more. Count me in.”

Mission to Paris is trademark Furst, a book not merely to read but to luxuriate in. Vienna-born Fredric Stahl, nee Franz Stalka, is a Hollywood actor of modest renown sent to Paris to star in a French movie named, ironically, “Apres la Guerre” (“After the War”). The year is 1938; Hitler has just taken Czechoslovakia and set his sights on Poland. With his American connections, high profile, and Germanic ancestry, Stahl attracts the interest of the political arm of the Reich’s Foreign Ministry; their goal is to manipulate him into making a public declaration against French rearmament. Initially, all Stahl wants to do is enjoy his time in Paris, where fond memories and sensual adventures await, and finish his film, for which he has high hopes. But he can’t stay on the sidelines for long; the next thing he knows, he’s flying to Berlin to judge a film festival of nakedly propagandist “mountain movies,” with stacks of Swiss francs stuffed inside his suit to purchase Nazi secrets. The night he meets his contact—the glamorous Russian actress Olga Orlova, who proves surprisingly adept with a silencer—Stahl awakens to the smell of smoke and the sound of shattering glass: beyond the windows of his hotel room, Kristallnacht is in full swing.

What happens then? Please. I’ve said too much as it is.

Suffice to say that for Furst’s legion of the obsessed, the novel is everything we crave and more. And for newcomers—why there should still be any, I simply don’t know—it’s certain to send them back into his rich body of work, hungry for more.

Review

“This is the romantic Paris to make a tourist weep … The brilliant historical flourishes seem to create – or recreate – a world … In Furst’s densely populated books, hundred of minor characters – clerks, chauffeurs, soldiers, whores – all whirl around his heroes in perfect focus for a page or two, then dot by dot, face by face, they vanish, leaving a heartbreaking sense of the vast Homeric epic that was World War II and the smallness of almost every life that was caught up in it.”
—*The New York Times Book Review

“Alan Furst again shows why he is a grandmaster of the historical espionage genre. Furst not only vividly re-creates the excitement and growing gloom of the City of Light in 1938-39, as war with Nazi Germany looms, but also demonstrates a profound knowledge of the political divisions and cultural sensibilities of that bygone era … As summer or subway reading goes, it doesn't get more action-packed and grippingly atmospheric than this.”
—*The Boston Globe

“Between them, Fredric and Paris make this a book no reader will put down to the final page. Furst evokes the city and the prewar anxiety with exquisite tension that is only a bit relieved by Fredric’s encounters with several women, each a vivid and attractive character. Critics compare Furst to Graham Greene and John le Carré, but the time has come for this much-published author (this is his ninth World War II novel after Spies of the Balkans) to occupy his own pinnacle as a master of historical espionage.”
*—Library Journal (starred)

“Furst conveys a strong sense of the era, when responding to a knock might open the door to the end of one’s days. The novel recalls a time when black and white applied to both movies and moral choices. It’s a tale with wide appeal.”
—*Kirkus (starred)

“[Furst] is most at home in Paris, which is why legions of his fans, upon seeing only the title of his latest book, will immediately feel pulses quicken … Furst has been doing this and doing it superbly for a long time now … Long ago Furst made the jump from genre favorite to mainstream bestsellerdom; returning to his signature setting, Paris, he only stands to climb higher.”
—Booklist (starred)

“Alan Furst’s writing reminds me of a swim in perfect water on a perfect day, fluid and exquisite. One wants the feeling to go on forever, the book to never end … Like Graham Greene, Furst creates believable characters caught up, with varying degrees of willingness, in the parade of political life. And because they care, the reader does, too … Furst is one of the finest spy novelists working today, and, from boudoir to the beach, Mission to Paris is perfect summer reading.”
—Publisher’s Weekly

“The writing in Mission to Paris, sentence after sentence, page after page, is dazzling. If you are a John le Carré fan, this is definitely a novel for you.”
–James Patterson

"I am a huge fan of Alan Furst. Furst is the best in the business--the most talented espionage novelist of our generation."
—Vince Flynn

“Reading Mission to Paris is like sipping a fine Chateau Margaux: Sublime!”
—Erik Larson

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Jan 15, 2013 Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

always good - I love the WWII spy stuff. Although I always think I am reading something that was written in a different language and has been translated into English. Then I read about the author and think 'hmmm no, he wrote this in English."

'His suite at the Adlon the Bismarck Suite- and there he was, in a gold frame on the wall, heroically painted with heavy white mustache and Pickelhaube spiked helmet - had all the luxuries and all the conveniences; for example a telephone in every room.' or...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Robert rated it 3 of 5 stars

Alan Furst’s MISSION TO PARIS has all the qualities-- but perhaps a little more optimism --that usually mark his novels. The setting primarily is pre-WWII Paris, and the focus is on Germany’s attempt to co-opt Fredric Stahl (a lower-level Hollywood movie star born in Vienna) into supporting the Third Reich’s political warfare against France before the outbreak of fighting. Stahl is in Paris to shoot a movie, and the message is that if he doesn’t help Germany demoralize the French and nudge them...more Alan Furst’s MISSION TO PARIS has all the qualities-- but perhaps a little more optimism --that usually mark his novels. The setting primarily is pre-WWII Paris, and the focus is on Germany’s attempt to co-opt Fredric Stahl (a lower-level Hollywood movie star born in Vienna) into supporting the Third Reich’s political warfare against France before the outbreak of fighting. Stahl is in Paris to shoot a movie, and the message is that if he doesn’t help Germany demoralize the French and nudge them toward capitulation, he might get shot himself.

So the novel offers a shadowy, inevitably romantic view of Paris, Germany’s expert intimidation tactics, and the movie business, wherein a star’s participation in symbolic acts and festivities can be used to promote either a film or a newly born thousand year reich.

This well-written novel paces itself in such a way that each element of its appeal--the wretched Nazis, the world of filmmaking, and the eloquence of Paris being Paris pushing lovers together--receives its due.

I don’t think Furst’s depiction of Nazi tactics in France (and elsewhere) is overdrawn, even though it’s brutal and relentless. By contrast, Stahl’s ambivalence in confronting his nemesis is interesting in its understated quality. This is a man who took refuge in the U.S. and really doesn’t want to get drawn into the latest phase of European “politics.” As a result he lacks the edge one might encounter in a Joseph Conrad or Graham Greene novel on the same, or a similar, theme. Yes, he hates what’s going on, but for the longest time, he simply wants to side-step it. No existential angst here; rather, Stahl is a man of moderate self-opinion and no special gift for anything other than professional acting and relatively sincere seductions.

Paris? What can one say? Bring in the mists, the shadows, the little side streets, the cafés, the tatty hotels and the grand hotels, the Seine, just walking and looking at the opposite sex passing by...It’s a good city, perhaps the best city, for a novel to unfold, and Furst is excellent in summoning its spirit to the fore.

Of course, a Furst novel generally tends to find Hungary and at least the flanks of the Balkans, and that’s in this book, too. Part of the movie has to be shot in an old Hungarian castle; not a good place for Stahl to be since by that point in the plot, he’s become a player in espionage and a marked man.

Thankfully, Furst decides not to depict the American diplomat in Paris who draws Stahl into anti-German activities as the typical back-slapping, no-nothing, insensitive clod who shows up in book after book, movie after movie. This second secretary shows restraint, caution, and good judgment as things get more and more complicated for Stahl.

Many of the novel’s scenes are driven by dialogue that’s just right and little reactions, physical and emotional, that are just right. There’s subtlety here. The good characters, at least, have a sense of both conscience and consequences. They’re careful, knowing that in a very short time, the Germans will abandon political warfare for military warfare.

No doubt certain things worked out well for some people almost trapped in Europe by WWII. Not every novel from this time and place has to end up in personal disaster, even though the continent itself met exactly that fate as a whole. This is my way of fleshing out just a little bit of what I meant earlier when I indicated there is some optimism in this book. For a lucky few, with the right connections and access to sufficient funds, escape was possible. I’m not 100% taken with the good fortune of the lucky few, however, so that diminished the overall impact of MISSION TO PARIS for me.

As compensation, one intriguing, self-possessed double-agent does get pushed out into the cold, and so she, Olga Orlova, is the character I value most. In fact, we never discover what happens to her, and I like that. It seems truer to the masses of dead Germany forced on a frightened and disbelieving world.(less)

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Oct 13, 2012 Jim Leffert rated it 4 of 5 stars

Cue the deep fog enveloping the dreary docks in a Balkan or Turkish port, listen for the clinking of wine glasses in Paris, and take note of the menacing shadows of Nazi ambitions reaching over Europe—Alan Furst is back with a new World War II era novel! In each of these books, a "regular"person, who is neither a professional spy nor a soldier, responds to the Nazi menace by risking his life in a clandestine operation.

There is a formulaic quality to these books—the hero will undergo danger, hav...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Ozzie Cheek rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading an Alan Furst novel is like shopping at J. Crew or LL Bean. You know what you're going to get before you walk in (or open the book), and you are rarely disappointed afterward. Introducing a main character who is a film star gives the novel a lighter tone than previous Furst novels. Furst's books are dark, and MISSION TO PARIS is still plenty dark. How could they be otherwise? Furst writes about not only the Nazi juggernaut but also about the blindness of many American, British, and Frenc...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Nancy Brisson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Alan Furst, says the book jacket of his newest book, Mission to Paris, is “widely recognized as the master of the historical spy novel.” What we have here is a suave, elegant spy novel, not an action-filled modern car or plane chase in sight. When Austrian born actor Frederic Stahl is sent by his studio, Warner Brothers in Hollywood, to Paris to make a movie for Paramount France called Après la Guerre, he doesn’t really want to go. It is 1938 and Hitler is already marching his bully march all ov...more
Alan Furst, says the book jacket of his newest book, Mission to Paris, is “widely recognized as the master of the historical spy novel.” What we have here is a suave, elegant spy novel, not an action-filled modern car or plane chase in sight. When Austrian born actor Frederic Stahl is sent by his studio, Warner Brothers in Hollywood, to Paris to make a movie for Paramount France called Après la Guerre, he doesn’t really want to go. It is 1938 and Hitler is already marching his bully march all over the face of Europe. However, after making a gentlemanly escape from a married lady with a drunken husband on the ship to Europe, he arrives in Paris to take up residence at the Claridge Hotel (not his usual choice, but still very grand).

Paris is, of course, beautiful and Frederic Stahl once lived in Paris so he knows it very well. He runs into Moppi, an old, but awkwardly gauche acquaintance who tries to bribe him to throw in his lot with the Germans who are hanging around France making life uncomfortable for everyone. France is not yet at war with Hitler, but it is a very near thing and the tension between the Germans and the Parisians is making Paris far less pleasant than usual. Mr. Stahl is in Paris to work, however, so he immerses himself in learning the lines for the film. Filming does not go smoothly at first and Stahl finds himself with time on his hands, but the Germans in Paris won’t leave him alone and keep trying to bind him, with his Austrian roots, to their side. They do not try to lure him with praise or women, wine and song. They try to ferret out any questionable behavior on his part in order to blackmail him. Fortunately there is little to find.

Eventually the director and the other actors arrive on the scene and the film gets rolling. Frederic gets involved with a chic Parisienne named Kiki de Saint-Ange and he is quite busy. Although he forgets the call to espionage for a while he eventually chooses a side and agrees to judge a film festival in Berlin so he can complete a secret war task for J.J. Wilkinson of the American Embassy. Thus begins Frederic’s life as a spy. In the middle of making his movie and spying for his country Stahl also falls in love, and not with the sophisticated Kiki. When the movie has to go to a castle in Hungary for some of the filming, Frederic comes face to face with the seriousness of Hitler’s quest to rule all of Europe and then perhaps the world. Of course, I cannot tell you the ending, but you surely already realize that Frederic Stahl was an accidental spy, as opposed to one trained in espionage.

I do like to read novels set in Paris, so Mr. Furst’s book had this in its favor. I also like spy stories. And Mr. Stahl makes a very manly spy. Furst tells us this, “Stahl had brought his favorite sweater to Paris, very soft wool, in horizontal gray and black bands, which hung loose from his shoulders. This he wore, along with chocolate corduroy trousers, some cedar-smelling cologne – not too much! – then put on his belted raincoat and found his umbrella.” I don’t ever remember reading such a careful description of how a man is dressed in a spy novel before but then Frederic is on his way to a real date with the object of his affections. If you enjoy cerebral spy stories played out in a time of great danger and deadly intent in the beautiful city of Paris at a time when war trumped beauty (and who wouldn’t?), you will like Mission to Paris.

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Sep 12, 2012 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

As spy novels go, this is on the cerebral side. There is not a lot of action, just thoughtful people trying to exist in a world on the brink of war. It is 1938 and Frederic Stahl, an American movie star of Viennese descent, has come to Paris to make a film. He is, of course, invited to all the smartest parties and is appalled at how the Nazi influence has already come to the city he loves. When asked to attend a German film festival in Berlin, he is reluctant, but when the American embassy appro...more

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Sep 11, 2012 Tim rated it 3 of 5 stars

Lately I've been veering more and more towards spy novels, I mean what is cooler than a little espionage and shadows creeping against an alley way through the fog from a sewer grate? So I was pumped to get into a spy thriller when I picked up A Mission To Paris. Sadly, though, I wasn't as excited when I up it down.

That isn't to say it wasn't a good book or it isn't worth reading. I loved the book and I couldn't put it down, I was just a little disappointed by the ending, and mostly because it c...more

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Sep 11, 2012 Roger Pettit rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Alan Furst has written 12 novels of espionage. This is only the second one that I have read but I gather that all are set in pre-Second World War Europe, usually in the Balkans and its environs. As its name suggests, "Mission to Paris" is slightly different from the others in that most of the action takes place in the French capital - in the year or so preceding the outbreak of war. It is an enjoyable, readable novel though it tends to run out of steam towards the end.

The principal protagonist...more Alan Furst has written 12 novels of espionage. This is only the second one that I have read but I gather that all are set in pre-Second World War Europe, usually in the Balkans and its environs. As its name suggests, "Mission to Paris" is slightly different from the others in that most of the action takes place in the French capital - in the year or so preceding the outbreak of war. It is an enjoyable, readable novel though it tends to run out of steam towards the end.

The principal protagonist is Austrian born Hollywood matinee idol Fredric Stahl. In autumn 1938, while under contract to Warner Brothers, he travels to Paris to make a film, "Apres La Guerre", which is to be set in the aftermath of the First World War. While making the film, Stahl becomes embroiled in the activities of some of the eminent, wealthy and influential socialites who are living in the city and who are pro-Nazi conspirators. They assume that, given his roots, he will be sympathetic to their views and to their cause and are keen to exploit his celebrity status to promote pro-Nazi propaganda. Stahl, however, does not share their politics and, as a counter measure, becomes involved in anti-German espionage activities while residing in Paris. The story unfolds from there as the Nazis begin to tighten their noose on the city and its inhabitants. Indeed, the final sentence in the story is quite brilliant in its clinical accuracy. It reads: "France was attacked by Germany on 10 May, 1940, and surrendered on 21 June.".

"Mission to Paris" is a very enjoyable novel with a lot going for it. The period detail, the characterisation and the plot are all good. Furst is very adroit at mixing historical fact with fiction and there are a number of telling details about the politics of the time and references to events that actually happened. It is clear from this that the author knows his stuff. The writing is of a very high quality and the tone is authentic and atmospheric. There are, however, a few problems. As I have already mentioned, the plot, though good as a whole, runs out of steam towards the end. Indeed, I got more than a little bored by the story about two-thirds into it. In addition, the suspense level rarely rises above 3/10. Until the closing scenes in a ruined Hungarian castle in which pro-Nazi figures attempt to lay a trap for Stahl, there is no suggestion that he is ever in any real danger (despite the presumably very hazardous nature of his clandestine activities). In addition, the conclusion of the story seemed to me to be somewhat contrived and implausible (but I cannot explain why I think that without giving away what happens). Nonetheless, "Mission to Paris" is worth reading, particularly if, like me, you are a fan of the sort of spy story that Eric Ambler, Graham Greene and, to some extent, Somerset Maugham specialised in. 7/10.

I should just add that the sub-editing of "Mission to Paris" is of an exemplary standard. The last few novels that I have read had more than their fair share of minor printing, grammatical and spelling errors and plot continuity weaknesses. There is none of that in this book. So, well done, Weidenfeld & Nicolson!

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Sep 06, 2012 Kwoomac rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, contemporary-lit, france-as-main-character, historical-fiction, reviewed, social-commentary, suspense, wwii

Alan Furst's novels have everything I'm looking for in a spy novel. He writes exclusively about what was going on in Europe in the 30s and 40s. His characters tend to have complicated motivations and it's often hard to tell who's the good guy and who's the bad guy. Turns out we're all a little of both.

Actually, in this, there is a clear hero. Fredric Stahl is a famous movie star living in Hollywood; he's originally from Vienna. In the fall of 1938, Warner Bros sends him to Paris to film a movie...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Julia rated it 2 of 5 stars

Read all of Alan Furst's earlier books. Liked the earlier novels a lot. Immensely, to be honest. Finally someone writing about the period with subtlety and insight. But the last couple--and especially this one--were disappointing. "Mission to Paris" often reads like Harlequin romance schtick aimed at male readers (no, and that ain't me, as you might guess). The protagonist, an Austrian-Slovenian-born actor who now takes the name "Stahl," is never in serious jeopardy, in fact, if it can be believ...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Keith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, crime-thriller, fiction, ebooks

Mission to Paris, is the twelfth installment of Alan Furst's Night Soldiers series. A series that began 24 years ago and continues with the same vigor and intelligence. I have read them all and still continue to marvel at how each one, generally with a completely new cast of characters, although some appear multiple times, generates the same level of intense interest for me. Furst's books are, as I said in my review of Spies of the Balkans, "variations on a theme, Hitler's War looms and in vario...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Patti rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. For characters and plot, I give this 2 stars; for the historical setting and sense of place, I give it 4 stars.

I fell in love with the setting (Paris, 1938, with a trip to Germany and to Hungary). I enjoyed spending "time" in this era, with these people. That is what kept me reading the book and I was sad to "leave" when I finished.

But the plot and characters were extremely thin. Characters were introduced and then dropped (the Nazi sympathizing hostess, Kitty, the assassins that weren't seen ag...more For characters and plot, I give this 2 stars; for the historical setting and sense of place, I give it 4 stars.

I fell in love with the setting (Paris, 1938, with a trip to Germany and to Hungary). I enjoyed spending "time" in this era, with these people. That is what kept me reading the book and I was sad to "leave" when I finished.

But the plot and characters were extremely thin. Characters were introduced and then dropped (the Nazi sympathizing hostess, Kitty, the assassins that weren't seen again until the end and then they seemed completely out of character for Nazi killers) and I wasn't really sure what the point of this story was. An American movie actor (born in Vienna and in love with Paris) is making a movie while the shit gettin' real in Europe. He is targeted by Nazis, for what seems to be a very thin reason: they want an American movie star to show how awesome they are. Really? Did those crazy motherfuckers really do stuff like that? And did they really have such long tentacles such that they could track Stahl down at the end? Maybe they did, I honestly don't know, but it seemed like a reach (NPI).

Sorry, back to plot: American movie actor is making a film in Paris. He is targeted by Nazis who are trying to tell him what to do. He goes to the American embassy and agrees to help. He brings money to a Russian actress in Germany and to a courier on a train. (While this would have been scary in 1938 Paris, it isn't really the cloak and dagger type stuff that I would expect from a spy novel. I would have much rather have spent time with the Russian actress/spy, Olga. *She* was more cloak and dagger and was far more interesting.) He gets harassed by the Nazis and then the crew goes to Hungary to film some scenes. There is a rather pointless scene where camera equipment gets stolen. Stahl and the costume woman fall in love and barely escape from Hungary (the whole escape thing was a bit over the top...would a movie actor really rate that level of help?). The end.

To quote Warner Brothers (to whom the actor is contracted): that's all folks! Everything else is just commentary, really.

Having said that, again I will praise the sense of time and place. I was honestly able to overlook the weak plot and the now you see them, now you don't characters because I was so in love with the place. It seems like the author's other books are much better, and I will check them out.

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Aug 02, 2012 Yvonne rated it 2 of 5 stars

As a die-hard Alan Furst fan who preorders his books, I am SO disappointed by Mission to Paris. Did he actually write this? I hope Mr. Furst is not giving his books to ghost writers, it just doesn’t feel like his writing. Nothing happens for the first third of the book, beginning with the scene about German money that doesn’t connect to the book until the end and then in a forced manner. Handsome movie star Frederic Stahl wonders about Paris and wants nothing. He has some vague internal alliance...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Michele Weiner rated it 2 of 5 stars

Frederick Stahl, American movie star and all-around nice guy, is sent to Paris by his studio to make a film about the futility of war. He tries not to think about the Hollywood calculations that sent him out of the country at such a dangerous time, and decides to make the most of the opportunity to revisit Paris. Stahl (not his real name) had been born in Vienna, but feels that he was happiest in Paris. He soon becomes the target of a German effort to recruit him for their own purposes. The Ribb...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Judith Starkston rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-mystery, mystery

Set in 1938 in Paris, this spy thriller reveals an interesting chapter in history. America had no CIA or equivalent intelligence agency. Roosevelt had the foresight to realize he had to prepare for the inevitable war, so he used his extensive personal relationships to collect intelligence on the Nazis and funded this work with private donors. Frederic Stahl, the main character of Mission to Paris, is a movie star with no training in being a spy, but while in Paris making a movie he becomes one....more Set in 1938 in Paris, this spy thriller reveals an interesting chapter in history. America had no CIA or equivalent intelligence agency. Roosevelt had the foresight to realize he had to prepare for the inevitable war, so he used his extensive personal relationships to collect intelligence on the Nazis and funded this work with private donors. Frederic Stahl, the main character of Mission to Paris, is a movie star with no training in being a spy, but while in Paris making a movie he becomes one. He’s from Vienna originally so the Nazi propagandists in Paris assume that he will contribute willingly in their political warfare to undermine the French people. They assumed wrongly, but Stahl is encouraged by a state department diplomat to play along with their plans as a cover. And we are off in an intriguing mire of trouble that, as you might guess, escalates beyond Stahl’s control very quickly.

Stahl is not by nature a spy sort of person. He’s good with the ladies, but no James Bond. When things go wrong, he doesn’t instantly see the creative escape nor does violence occur to him at first. In the face of cold-blooded killing, he responds with shock. In other words, Furst has avoided all the spy clichés and created a believable character. Just don’t expect action-packed pages or not in the nail-biting, page-ripping mode. Lots happens, danger threatens, and sometimes bursts out, but you’ll have time as a reader to weigh the characters’ choices along with them, trace the strands, and anticipate the disasters that may or may not come about.

Furst plays with stereotypes of Paris. His setting moves in and out of the expected. Sometimes the food, the romances, the elegance are all deployed with charming and entertaining effect—the delightful Paris we all think we know. Other times, we witness a darker Paris, both in terms of seamier neighborhoods and in terms of Parisian character. The people seem ill equipped to combat the insidious Nazi machine that is eating away at their hearts and minds and will soon drive over them with tanks. What of the grace Furst has also depicted will survive? For the characters that’s very much an open question and for us, immersed in this moment, we are able to feel the precipice, inch our toes forward and wonder once again if the world will plunge off irrevocably into the Nazi’s grim vision.
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Jul 18, 2012 Kristin rated it 2 of 5 stars

In Mission to Paris, Alan Furst has a clever idea and a lot of potential with his story, but it lacks development and is far from the great spy novel that it could be. The story revolves around Fredric Stahl, a Hollywood actor, who has been sent to Paris to work on a film about World War I. The filming begins at the same time that the roots of World War II are being planted and Stahl is quickly invited to social engagements that are hosted by the richest and most powerful Germans in Paris. While...more In Mission to Paris, Alan Furst has a clever idea and a lot of potential with his story, but it lacks development and is far from the great spy novel that it could be. The story revolves around Fredric Stahl, a Hollywood actor, who has been sent to Paris to work on a film about World War I. The filming begins at the same time that the roots of World War II are being planted and Stahl is quickly invited to social engagements that are hosted by the richest and most powerful Germans in Paris. While he believes this to be part of a warm welcome, he soon begins to suspect that the Germans have other plans and would like to use him to influence the public opinion of the Nazi regime (and given Stahl's Austrian heritage, he would be accepted in Germany).
Stahl speaks to Wilkinson, a representative at the American embassy, and comes to realize that he could take advantage of an opportunity offered by the Nazis (to judge a mountain film festival) in order to gather information for the Americans. Under the pretenses of promoting his film, Stahl travels to Germany and sees the true state of affairs. After returning to Paris, he realizes he can no longer remain neutral and decides to do one more exchange while filming in Morocco. The tension mounts as the Germans begin to suspect Stahl's involvement and he must decide what to do in order to survive and return to America safely.
While the plot sounds solid from the outset, the first third of the book is a description of Stahl's character and focuses on his outlook as a movie star and his position in the social sphere. The spy situation, although seemingly the center of the story based upon the book jacket, only takes up a fraction of the story. The rest of the story focuses on Stahl's romantic interests and his endeavors to explore Paris. The characters are underdeveloped and the story overall is a slow read without the action and suspense that is expected in spy novels. The story ends rather suddenly and leaves the reader to tie up loose ends.(less)

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Jul 12, 2012 Quinby6696 Frank rated it 3 of 5 stars

Fast-paced mystery set in 1938 in Paris and Berlin as Hitler came to his full power. Hollywood movie star Frederick Stahl was sent to Paris by his studio to film "Apres la Guerre" -- a movie about the futility of war. Totally naive as to the machinations of "political warfare" Frederick is plunged into the midst of a clandestine battle for the hearts and minds of the people of France. Hitler and his minions -- a deliciously malicious and conniving bunch of thugs - are trying to use the French me...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-crime-detection

MISSION TO PARIS. (2012). Alan Furst. ****.
In this latest installment from historical spy novelist Furst, we meet Fredric Stahl, an actor from Hollywood – although originally from Vienna – who has been sent by his studio to star in a European production of a new film, “Apres la Guerre.” He arrives in Paris and immediately falls in with a group of Germans who want to meet him. This is 1938, and the unrest in Europe from Germany’s saber rattling is palpable. He is surprised that Germans in the ci...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Julia rated it 3 of 5 stars

The story is set in Paris in late 1938. Hitler has appropriated Czechoslovakia and there are fears that he will invade Poland. The French are split between those who feel that he must be stopped and those who want to appease him if it will avoid France being drawn into another war for which it is ill prepared. An Austrian born, American movie star by the name of Fredric Stahl, comes to Paris to shoot a film. Initially he is happy to be in Paris, a city that he lived in many years previously and...more

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Jun 26, 2012 JoAnne Pulcino rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction, adult-thriller, spy

MISSION TO PARIS

By Alan Furst

Europe in the summer of 1938 is a flame about to burst. Arriving in Paris to film a movie, Hollywood film star, Fredric Stahl is seen by the Nazis as the perfect agent of influence and is approached by Nazi sympathizers. Horrified by the Nazi war on Jews and intellectuals he becomes part of an informal spy service run out of the American embassy.

Alive with plot, characters and atmosphere, our hero meets a countess who is a famous hostess and a Nazi supporter, two ass...more

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Jun 25, 2012 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Alan Furst is back and in fine form. Long time readers will recognize characters and places from previous novels and welcome new ones. Furst's pre-war Paris would not be complete without a visit to Papa Henninger's for some choucroute. And yes, the Bulgarian bullet hole is still there.

But there is a new thread as well. And that is that the evil of totalitarianism isn't just in wars and concentration camps -- the big things -- but in small things too. The way these regimes must attack human dign...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Mal Warwick rated it 4 of 5 stars

A Truly Superior Novel of Espionage at the Dawn of World War II

Alan Furst writes deeply engrossing novels of suspense about espionage in Europe in the years leading up to and during World War II. Mission to Paris, the latest of these books, is good enough to satisfy the most exacting fans of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene. It’s difficult to accept the fact that Furst grew up on the Upper West Side of New York City and now lives nearby in Sag Harbor. He lived in Europe (Paris, actually) for only a...more A Truly Superior Novel of Espionage at the Dawn of World War II

Alan Furst writes deeply engrossing novels of suspense about espionage in Europe in the years leading up to and during World War II. Mission to Paris, the latest of these books, is good enough to satisfy the most exacting fans of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene. It’s difficult to accept the fact that Furst grew up on the Upper West Side of New York City and now lives nearby in Sag Harbor. He lived in Europe (Paris, actually) for only a limited period, seemingly far too short a time to explain the convincingly European sensibility about his work.

An Austrian-born Hollywood film star named Fredric Stahl is the protagonist of Mission to Paris. The title is ironic, as Stahl has come to Paris at the behest of Jack Warner to star on loan to Paramount Pictures in a war movie. As production on the film slowly commences, Stahl becomes increasingly attracted to the German emigre seamstress who creates the costumes for the movie, and soon finds himself starring in his own private love story. Meanwhile, the resolutely anti-Nazi Stahl finds himself targeted by Nazi operatives intent on enmeshing him in their propaganda machine. As the action unfolds, the two story lines intersect, endangering both Stahl and his lover.

When the story opens, it is late in 1938, with Europe on the brink of war. Chamberlain’s capitulation at Munich and the tragedy of Kristallnacht unfold in the background, occasional subjects of conversation and concern. Meanwhile, heated debate is underway in France about proposals from the Left to rearm the country in the face of inevitable German aggression, with sometimes violent opposition from the Right and the Nazi underground. Mission to Paris draws to a satisfying close shortly before Germany’s invasion of France in June 1939.

Mission to Paris is the twelfth of Furst’s “Night Soldiers” stories, which have appeared at an average of about one every two years since 1988. Far in the background of these novels is a lengthy cast of characters who may crop up from time to time in any given novel — occasionally with major roles, but usually more akin to spear carriers.

More power to Alan Furst! I can’t wait for the next book.

(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com)(less)

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Jun 14, 2012 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars

Four stars to Mr. Furst for historically informed mood and ambience; no one does it better. I also continue to love how he deals with the set pieces of actual espionage and danger in his stories. Only three stars for the book as a whole, though, because I didn't find the protagonist very credible. Fredric Stahl, born in Vienna, is a resident American in 1938, when the book takes place, and is described as a major movie star. As such, he goes to Paris to make a French movie, and gets gradually,...more

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May 01, 2012 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

If you've read any of Furst's eleven other historical spy thrillers (most set in the build up to, or during, World War II), you should have a pretty good sense of what you're getting here. A solid amateur hero who's not too young, not too old, but just the right age and cool, calm demeanor to fit the role of reader stand-in/fantasy figure. Set in the last few months of 1938, the story follows Hollywood star Frederic Stahl, who has been ordered by studio boss Jack Warner to go to Paris to shoot a...more If you've read any of Furst's eleven other historical spy thrillers (most set in the build up to, or during, World War II), you should have a pretty good sense of what you're getting here. A solid amateur hero who's not too young, not too old, but just the right age and cool, calm demeanor to fit the role of reader stand-in/fantasy figure. Set in the last few months of 1938, the story follows Hollywood star Frederic Stahl, who has been ordered by studio boss Jack Warner to go to Paris to shoot a film for the studio's French division. He heads to Europe somewhat naively anticipating a pleasant trip down memory lane, as he lived in Paris for a number of years in his 20s after having been born and raised in Vienna.

However, he soon discovers that Europe is tense and ready to explode, as the Nazis flex their muscles in the Sudetenland and Poland. The German "poltical war" machine is in full swing, cultivating rich and powerful sympathizers in France in order to rally public opinion against any kind of intervention. As a quasi-prominent American, Stahl gets swept up in these machinations before he really understands what the situation is. And from such relatively minor seeds are sown an evocative portrait of a country and continent on the brink, with the usual cast of colorful continentals (including, I believe, some of the characters from The World at Night).

The story is perhaps a little underwhelming in that the stakes never feel all that high: the main tension for most of the book is whether or not Stahl will be manipulated into an unfavorable public position or not -- interesting enough in the execution, but hardly nail-biting stuff. Along the way, there are the usual odes to Paris, and romantic dalliances, sufused of course, with large lashings of prewar melancholia. The focus on Paris is thankfully mitigated by a section in Morocco in the middle, and the book's climax in Hungary (which provides a good excuse for a cameo by Count Polanyi, who appears in Kingdom of Shadows, Blood of Victory, Dark Star, and The Foreign Correspondent.).

As with so much of Furst's work, the atmosphere is great and the story does an excellent job of unveiling the subtle cut and thrust of prewar espionage. However, it's not quite as gripping as many of his other books, and Stahl is perhaps too much on the nose as a hero. I wouldn't start with this if you've never read Furst, but definitely worth reading if you're already a fan.(less)

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Mission to Paris (Night Soldiers #12)

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