This is a disappointing entry into Furst's "Night Soldiers" canon. The protagonist - Fredric Stahl, movie star - is almost certainly the weakest of Furst's leading men, lacking the inner conflicts and torments of his predecessors. He takes a principled stand against helping the Nazis, but the principles don't feel rooted in anything much - rather, they seem to be there merely to provide the central plot conflict.

Also, there just doesn't seem to be a strong enough feeling of danger and suspense throughout Stahl's journey from simple actor to reluctant spy. A vaguely threatening phone call here and a mysterious intruder in a hotel room there ... but somehow nothing much seems to be at stake for Stahl. "Will the movie get made?" - ah, who cares? Stahl is, indeed, totally absent from the only real "action scene" in the book - he remains behind in a launch and hears the reports from gunfire, but doesn't participate. The Hungarian count who appears briefly to help thwart a German ploy to abduct Stahl would make for a much more interesting character, and I hope we learn more about him in future novels.

Furst is, as always, talented in creating a certain mood and at bringing alive European cities of the immediate pre-WWII era (in this case, obviously, Paris). But the choice to hinge the story on a movie production with its leading man as the star severely limited the possibilities and the emotional depth that his other novels have captured.