Mission to Paris (Night Soldiers, #12) in Around the World in 80 Books

May 01, 2012 Tony rated it really liked it

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 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. ...more

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Mar 09, 2012 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, world-war-ii, spy, france

Furst's genius here is in centering his story around an actor - having someone who pretends to be other people for a living is exactly the right sort to draw into an informal spy network. The layers of pretending and deception are well-done, and as always Furst perfectly captures the low-level malice that permeates Europe in the run-up to the war. ...more

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