I am a Furst fan but this one was particularly good! Paris in 1938 is a wonderful setting made doubly so by the threat of war. As always, Furst's characters are both interesting and well-drawn, even the minor players like Kiki de St. Ange and Renate Steiner. The German menace comes to full flower over the course of the book, but it is subtly introduced at first. The actor, Frederic Stahl, the main character, a Viennese born emigre to America is surrounded by "helpful" Germans when he comes to Paris to make a movie. Ostensibly, they want him to speak in favor of "rapprochement" between Germany and France in 1938, but their agenda changes as he resists. As the scene shifts to various European cities, the plot thickens as Stahl becomes a bit player in the world of espionage. Most of Furst's characters are just ordinary people who become drawn into a web of intrigue as war approaches. I never tire of his plots because the period itself is so interesting and because he never uses the same main characters more than once. This example of his work is one of the best although I am still troubled his signature abrupt endings.