Mission to Paris

Written by Alan Furst

Narrated by Daniel Gerroll

From the New York Times bestselling author and the “modern-day master of the genre” (New York Newsday) comes a gripping novel of espionage and deception in 1938 pre-war Paris.

At the center of the intrigue is Hollywood star, Frederic Stahl. September 1938. On the eve of the Munich Appeasement, Stahl arrives in Paris, on loan from Warner Brothers to star in a French film. He quickly becomes entangled in the shifting political currents of pre-war Paris—French fascists, German Nazis, and his Hollywood publicists all have their fates tied to him. But members of the clandestine spy world of Paris have a deeper interest in Stahl, sensing a potential asset in a handsome, internationally renowned actor.
     Ranging from the high society of glittering Paris to film set locations in far-away Damascus and Budapest, Alan Furst’s new novel confirms his status as a writer whose stories unfold “like a vivid dream” (The Wall Street Journal).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Jun 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781442349094

Alan Furst

Alan Furst is widely recognized as the master of the historical spy novel. He is the author of Night Soldiers, Dark Star, The Polish Officer, The World at Night, Red Gold, Kingdom of Shadows, Blood of Victory, and Dark Voyage. Born in New York, he has lived for long periods in France, especially Paris. He now lives on Long Island, New York. Visit the author's website at AlanFurst.net.

Reviews for Mission to Paris

[smik_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've been listening to this great audio book, driving the car, for about 2 months now, but today I couldn't wait any longer to hear the rest and listened to the last hour.For those who haven't met the series before: London's Peculiar Crimes unit is always under threat of closure. Basically they deal with crimes no-one else likes and the principal detectives are the elderly Arthur Bryant and John May. Arthur certainly should have been retired twenty years ago but May has a great tolerance of his foibles.What I like about these books is the complexity of the plots, the fact that there is almost always some historical detail that Arthur Bryant knows that relates to the murder being investigated. The appeal of the plots is related to the peculiarity of the crimes. Add to that the quirkiness of Arthur Bryant himself and the people he consults.And running through it all, the author's sense of humour.Tim Goodman does a wonderful job of the narration.

[devenish_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Bryant and May and amazed when Oskar Kasavian,their usually antagonistic boss asks them to investigate his wife.She is acting strangely and her behaviour is causing concern among the wives of his colleagues.When several deaths occur which seem to be linked to Mrs Kasavian,the members of the Peculiar Crimes Unit are brought in.As always,this is a well thought-out book which is unusual enough to be described as unique in crime fiction.

[freudslip · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is my first introduction (other than by reputation) to Alan Furst, and while the novel was interesting and well-researched from a historical perspective it just wasn't a great spy thriller. Perhaps, I was hoping Mission to Paris would be grittier, but it seems like Furst was more interested in telling this pre-WWII spy novel in the tone and style of a Cary Grant/Gary Cooper movie script. Stahl is a pawn in a political/spy/war game between big power; a lover of a lot of attractive and dangerous women; a reluctant hero, a smoldering spy. Yeesh. It wasn't THAT over-the-top, but it just wasn't what I expected. Predicable, and almost throw-away, but still enjoyable. Mission to Paris is a good vacation or beach read, just not a spectacular spy nove

[col2910_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Synopsis/blurb........Frederic Stahl, a Hollywood film star, travels from Beverly Hills to the boulevards of Paris. It is a dangerous, difficult, seductive time: Europe is about to explode, and the Parisians are living every night as though it were their last. As filming progresses, Stahl is drawn into a clandestine world of foreign correspondents, embassy officials, and spies of every sort. His engagements take him from the bistros of Paris to the back alleys of Morocco; from a Hungarian castle to Kristallnacht, and the chilling heart of the Third Reich. But can he survive as German operatives track him across Paris? Gripping, haunting, and deeply passionate, Mission to Paris is the ultimate portrait of a people at war and Alan Furst's most panoramic, lovingly described, and finest book to date.My first Alan Furst book and it was an absolute cracker. I have a lot of his earlier work sat around at home unread, but on the basis of this offering, hopefully for not too much longer. Furst?s Mission To Paris is set ? guess where? Paris in 1938. Our hero, Fredrik Stahl, an Austrian by birth and a successful actor in LA is making a film in Europe. Returning to Paris, after some years away, he becomes immersed in the manipulations and machinations of Parisian society. His presence in the city is seized upon by none too subtle Nazi elements that seek to use him to advance their cause. Stahl, unsympathetic to their aims, tries to avoid becoming a stooge for the Germans in the war being fought in the press about the French government?s preferred stance towards Hitler. Opt for appeasement and hope he leaves them be? Or stand up to the playground bully in the near certain knowledge that French resistance on its own would be easily overcome by the German military machine.This is where I struggle with my reviews generally, how much detail do I put in, how much do I leave out?Furst masterfully portrays a conflicted society and city; factions embracing the impending era of Nazi dominance and endeavouring to speed its ascent, factions fearful of the changes to come and the ever-invasive dread of what Nazism will mean for their families and friends, many of them having departed Germany previously in terror at the growing right-wing menace.Furst?s Stahl was a realistic and compelling hero. Overcoming his initial reservations, he is increasingly drawn into a shadowy world of espionage, trying to provide a conduit for information between Americans anxious to influence the President at home regarding the German menace and practical support for agents on the ground in Berlin, at the risk to his public persona. Before too long the stakes are raised and Stahl is sucked into not just a battle to preserve his career, but his life and that of the woman he has fallen for. Intelligent and educational, gripping, exciting and scary; this was one of the best books I?ve read in the past year or so, let alone this month.5 from 5 I borrowed my copy form my local library in Leighton Buzzard.

[westwoodrich · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Christopher Fowler’s Bryant and May return for their latest adventure in The Invisible Code. The eccentric and increasingly decrepit Peculiar Crimes Unit is handed their strangest assignment yet, a personal request from their arch-enemy Oskar Kasavian to protect his wife. As usual their investigation takes some obscure turns, leading them into the history of insanity and witchcraft. I liked it, but have a suspicion that the series is running out of steam.

[remizak · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

1938 France walks on a high-tension wire. Germany has re-armed and is on the march. Austria has become part of the glorious Reich, the Sudetenland and Danzig are being vociferously claimed and the French wait to see what Hitler plans next.Some French have already succumbed, willingly, to what they see as inevitable. Businessmen openly admire the new Germany and use their connections with certain newspapers to propagandize in favor of authoritarianism, falsely positing that anything to the left of that is equivalent to the menace of bolshevism. Too many politicians and bureaucrats are also ready to accept Germany's domination of Europe.Many of France's refugees, on the other hand, are too well acquainted with the Third Reich to be anything but frightened for the future of France and themselves. Embassy and intelligence personnel from other countries, stationed in Paris, anxiously monitor develops and prepare for the worst.Into this seething atmosphere comes Frederic Stahl, an American movie star who has arrived in Paris to make a movie. Stahl was born in Austria under the name Franz Stalka, then lived in Paris for several years. No admirer of the Nazis, Stahl is surprised to find many Germans and German-friendly French in Paris's high society---and just as surprised to find himself assiduously courted by them.When courting is followed by pressure and threats by Germany's agents to get Stahl to act, essentially, as a celebrity supporter of the Reich, Stahl decides to become a player on the other side of the intelligence and influence war being waged.Though I read a lot of World War II-era fiction, I have not been a fan of Alan Furst in the past, largely because I haven't been engaged by his characters. But I'm very much an admirer of this book--even if I'd still say characterization isn't Furst's strong suit. You might think that a pre-war espionage story can't be compelling, but Furst masterfully evokes feelings of tension and frustration as we see the inevitable cataclysm building and Stahl's efforts to hold back the storm. He also seems to effortlessly put the reader into the scenes he's created, so that we are there on the Paris streets, at the glittering parties, in the cafés, on the movie set.In some ways, this book reminded me of William Boyd's Restless: A Novel, which also tells the tale of an agent engaged in pre-war intelligence; in that case a female agent working in the U.S. for Britain, hoping to move the U.S. away from isolationism. I would recommend that book and this one for fascinating views at how war works before the shots are fired.DISCLOSURE: I received a free review copy of this book.

[everfresh1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I haven't read previous novels from this series - and probably never will. I found plot somewhat convoluted and logic used to resolve the crime not very convincing. On the plus side I loved the character of Arthur Bryant, main investigator with all typical and wonderful British humor. The multiple historical references were also fascinating. I wish it would have a better plot.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

So glad for the opportunity to once again enter the world of Bryant and Mays, two elderly detectives, much maligned for their unorthodox ways, particularly Bryant whose ways of thinking cannot easily be discerned, and the other members that make up the Peculiar Crime Division.For once they find themselves in the position of trying to help the man who most often wants to shut them down, Oskar, their boss and main critic. Fowler has mastered his craft, has come up with a winning combination of humor, aged detectives who are forced to operate in the modern world, much to Bryant;s continuous dismay, a wonderful story and quite a bit of history. The churches of London, St. Brides and others, the history of the various clubs throughout time and what they meant, Bedlam and some of the past treatments there and even a mention of rats and fleas and the notorious plague, as well as the existing class system.. His supporting staff is interesting as well, a white witch, a black witch, co-workers who are loners themselves and even a pregnant cat. Wonderfully entertaining, very well done and in this case the PCU hasS a chance to help themselves and their unit once again regain an acknowledged position of power. Of course, things are never as simple as they appear and are so very often deceiving, are they not?ARC from NetGalley.

[kerrymarsh · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was given a copy for my honest opinion and review. This is a well written and quite humorous look at the British Police Department. In this story, the "Peculiar Crimes Unit" is a branch of the London police assigned cases with a supernatural flavour, the unanswerable cases. In particular the case of an otherwise perfectly healthy woman who just dropped dead in a church for no apparent reason and "the Unit" are called in. The two main detectives, May and Bryant take on the case despite other parts of the Department trying to derail their efforts.

[scot2-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoy the Bryant & May books; they are such fun. I can see them as a television series. The brilliant , old detective employs solves the crimes in strange ways.

[unkletom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

‘The Invisible Code’ is the 10 in a series of cozy mysteries featuring London-based detectives Arthur Bryant and John May of the oddly named Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU). While I own two other PCU books that were highly recommended, I haven’t yet read them making The Invisible Code the first of the series that I have read. While this book does refer to other cases that the team has worked on, it doesn’t do so in a way that makes the reader regret reading the series out of order. Other reviewers have suggested that one should read the book immediately preceding this one. While it may be wise to do so, it is by no means necessary.Arthur Bryant and John May make up a delightful pair of old codgers whose cases date back to World War II. It’s hard to read about them and not think about Peter Falk’s Lieutenant Columbo divided into two distinct halves, one left-brained and one right-brained, both with British accents. May’s thinking is more linear. He is the quintessential policeman. Bryant, on the other hand, seems to get more inspiration from a museum than a crime scene. His intuitive manner at looking at problems is often at odds with May’s belief in Occam’s razor add an impressive depth to the two characters.In ‘The Invisible Code’, the PCU takes on two apparently unrelated cases. First is the unexplained death of a woman who dies in a church with two children claiming that the death is the result of an imaginative witch-hunter game they were playing. In the second case, May and Bryant are asked by a senior officer in the Home Office to investigate strange behavioral changes that his wife has been exhibiting. This latter case is sensitive as the official is in the middle of international trade negotiations that could be sidetracked by an embarrassing domestic scandal.Bottom line: Bryant and May make up a delightful pair of investigators. The case is entertaining but not likely to make anyone’s top ten list.*Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy and may not be the same as appears in the final published edition. The review copy of this book was obtained from the publisher via the Amazon Vine Program.

[gary237 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed reading Alan Furst's new novel, Mission to Paris. It is the story of a successful Hollywood character actor who travels to Europe from Los Angeles in 1938 for location filming of a French adventure movie. Frederic Stahl arrives in Paris and makes contact with a number of Warner's studio representatives. Stahl has had a stellar career, and has earned the VIP treatment in terms of the provisions of hotel, food, drink, and transportation. He also is the focus of the European press and Germans living in Paris who are sympathetic to the Nazi Party. Members of the press interview him about his political views and the Nazi sympathizers court him hoping to bring positive publicity to Hitler's movement.When the Nazis invite Stahl to join a panel of film experts in Berlin to judge movies presented in a German mountain film festival, Stahl at first declines. His excuse is not language-related since he was born and raised in Austria. He has been warned by Warner's studio people to stay out of European politics. He is contacted by an official in the US foreign service who talks Stahl into going to the festival with the purpose of performing some low level spy activity. Frederic is an intelligent actor and a bit of a risk taker so he travels to Berlin with a bundle of US money and a secret mission.Frederic Stahl is a very likable and handsome person much like the popular US actor, George Clooney. He enjoys life in all of its finer aspects, and he has earned this high standard of living over the years through hard work as an actor. He would rather not be involved in pre-war politics, but he is the right person in the wrong time in history and decides to risk his comfortable life by committing time and effort to resisting social evil.Alan Furst is a great stylist, and his narrative matches perfectly the point of view of Frederic Stahl. It is sophisticated, low key, suave, and knowledgeable in the descriptions of the high life and adventure. Readers share Stahl's enjoyment of fine hotels, vintage wines, delicious food, and stimulating sexual relationships. They also share the tension of his risky amateur spy activity. And through it all, Stahl continues to work hard as an actor maintaining the intermittent filming schedule of the film's director.Within the category of "Fiction - Thrillers" designation given by Random House, this is a top notch novel. I give it 5/5 stars and highly recommend the book to devotees of this literary category.

[vcg610 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Invisible Code is a British police procedural novel with a twist. It is in fact, a part of a series called the Peculiar Crimes Mystery Unit. This is the 10th novel in the series, and I can hardly wait to delve backwards into the preceding mysteries.Author Christopher Fowler has crafted witty dialog to go along with mysterious, sometimes bizarre plot lines. His two Senior detectives Arthur Bryant and John May, are older men who are accidentally hilarious, though fairly astute at cutting through the mystery to find resolution to the cases that come their way. In The Invisible Code, a young woman drops dead from unknown causes, but she had been reading Rosemary's Baby, and there were some children nearby playing witchcraft games at the time...In a supposedly unrelated case, the Home Office politician that the two detectives disdain, Oskar Kasavian, calls them into his office to ask that they monitor and protect his stunningly beautiful Albanian wife, offering them "a permanent guarantee of official status within the City of London police structure," if they agree to take on this task. (See why I'm curious about what has happened in previous novels?) Mrs. Kasavian has apparently gotten mixed up with some witchcraft too.I am happy to have discovered this author and this series, particularly since I see that one of Fowler's previous novels won the Crimefest's Last Laugh award for funniest mystery novel!

[memccauley6 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I have read a couple of these “Peculiar Crimes Unit” mysteries, and I enjoyed them – but to be perfectly honest, I just couldn’t muster up the interest to finish this one. I enjoyed the bits about Bryant and May’s personal lives and opinions, but the subject of the mystery was a spoiled, uncooperative woman, and I had absolutely no interest in reading any more about her. Sorry

[Mary Powell · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I tried, three times, and I know better. I didn't like this. I was bored, confused, and frustrated. I wanted to like this. The cover and flap drew me in.

Too much and too little going on. As a whole nothing made sense.

Two stars for effort. The author may appeal to someone else. I did laugh a few times, and a couple times thought Masterpiece would love this moment. Sadly, this is being stuck in an elevator with someone who will not stop talking, nonsensically.

[newsieq · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Senior detectives Arthur Bryant and John May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) are constantly at war with their superiors. So it’s unexpected when their Home Office boss Oskar Kasavian asks them to investigate his own wife, Sabira. Her behavior of late is so bizarre that Kasavian wants to know what happened to her that precipitated the weirdness. Working in their own inimitable way, Bryant and May get the entire unit involved at looking into Sabira’s recent past -- and they find a connection to an earlier murder. When another murder of a person tied to Sabira occurs, the race is on to find answers. Christopher Fowler is #1 on my list of favorite authors who are fabulous at creating eccentric characters – and putting them into odd situations. Over the life of this series (The Invisible Code is number ten), I’ve grown to appreciate the author’s wonderful imagination and his ability to make writing such characters look easy.With some publishers cranking out clichéd, cookie-cutter mysteries with interchangeable characters and bland storylines, stories like The Invisible Code stand out all the more. I am happy to see that Mr. Fowler is at work on another PCU mystery.

[velopunk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As far as I am concerned, Alan Furst owns espionage fiction from the date of the Munich Agreement to Pearl Harbor. Nobody conveys the sense of dread and the inevitability of World War II. His characters are typically antifascists from Balkan countries, Greece, Poland or the Baltic states. The protagonist this time is Fredric Stahl an Austrian-born actor who has lived in the United States for eight years. He has come to Paris in the Fall of 1938 to star in a movie. Stahl has come to the attention of the Ribbentropburo after an agent has read in Variety that he is enroute to Paris. The Ribbentropburo engages in political warfare, what we would call today psychological operations, or psyops. The Nazis did this in every country in Europe that stood in the path of Blitzkreig. In France they have formed Franco-German friendship groups and business alliances. They hammered away on the futility of war and attack as war mongers those who want to build up French defenses and lessen dependence on the Maginot Line. They funded sympathetic politicians, journalists, and intellectuals. Stahl falls in the sights of the psyops. He is interviewed and finds that they are slanted to make him seem in favor of the coming new order. Angered, he tries to fight back and finds himself threatened. Stahl has made contact with an intelligence officer in the Paris embassy. He agrees to judge a German mountain film festival and brings in a large quantity of Swiss Francs to pay an intelligence asset in Berlin. Eventually he must flee France and return to the United States.

[aadyer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good, fun read that is paced well with a mounting crescendo near the end. Bryant & May are as amusing & erudite as always. Good plotting & occult goings on give this a very mysterious feel. Recommended if you get the time to be able to devote yourself to it in large chunks.

[longdogmom · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have come to love this series and always enjoy reading them. This one in particular kept me guessing and surprised, right until the very end! The character of Arthur Bryant is wonderful...so real and fully formed that I can hear his voice in my head when he refers to his boss Raymond Land as "Raymondo" and approaches their cases with his insatiably curiousity (something I can certainly relate to!). It's easy to picture him in his messy office - almost like a cabinet of curiosities full of weird and unusual artifacts asm well as books on a variety of subject matter, none of which would normally seem pertinent in any way to a police detective! And then there's his partner May - sauve and sophisticated, the Yin to Bryant's Yang, or as Bryant puts it "the other half of my brain."! Their unconventional methods in solving their cases, and the bits of historical trivia scattered throughout is always fascinating. I hope Christopher Fowler continues to write many more adventures featuring the wonderfully quirky Peculiar Crimes Unit

[kslade-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

OK spy story just before war with Nazis. A bit racy in spots.

[nwieme-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5
It was good, but it felt like something was missing. History and espionage but dry-ish.

[shellys_70 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm addicted to Alan Furst's Europe-in-World War II novels.They're all connected, even if the protagonists and other main characters are different, and this book has many references to characters and incidents in other of his novels. The setting, as it often is in his books, is Paris in 1938-39, on the brink of war. An American movie star, but European by birth, is in Paris to film a movie, where he becomes a subject of interest to influential members of a group advocating for peace and cooperation with Germany, aka appeasement. If they can get the American actor, Fredric Stahl, to appear to be a friend of Germany and an advocate for peace, it will be quite a coup for the Nazi propaganda machine. And those attempts bring Stahl to the American embassy in Paris, where he becomes an informal spy, one of many, being run out of the embassy to spy on Germans. Stahl's role is mostly as a courier, but it is a dangerous one.At so many points in this novel, it felt like more than the usual work of historical fiction. It felt like a primer for today, especially when a journalist explains to him how the Nazis are trying to use him and how they manipulate the media, behind the scenes, to shape the public's perceptions and influence their opinions. How smear campaigns were used to destroy anyone trying to warn France of the Nazi danger and the need to re-arm France for war. So much of what Hitler's minions and wealthy and influential French people did echoes what is going on today. Control the media, control the message, and you can control enough of the population. And as we now know, it mostly worked for Germany, because when they did invade France, they met with weak military resistance. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, but the invasion these days doesn't necessarily come from without, but from within to slowly erode democracy.I read a lot of historical fiction and a lot of science fiction and I realized they have one thing in common: They both point out human behavior, with lessons for us to learn, lessons too many people never learn, and so, we keep making the same mistakes. This book is one of Furst's best, a good blend of intrigue, suspense, characters to root for, and a history lesson that shouldn't be ignored.

[smits_52 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Europe on the brink of war and an American movie star travels to Paris to make a french movie. He gets caught up in The German Reich Foreign ministry web as someone to help in publicity for their cause. They want Paris to surrender to Germany before war comes. Fredric Stahl is one of many interesting characters in this novel filled with German bad guys and french aristocrats and emigres.The plot is okay but lacks great plot twists or surprises. What I enjoyed very much was the time in Paris, the heart and soul of Europe in this novel. It's restaurants and cafes, hotels, and streets scapes arebrought to life at this dark time in history.

[maggieflo_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Alan Furst never disappoints me.This time the hero is Frederic Stahl an Austrian born Hollywood movie star who is in Paris in 1938 to star in movie called Après la Guerre. The city is crawling with Nazis and he is covertly approached by several who want to have him work on their side. Stahl wants nothing to do with them and finds refuge with the American attaché, Wilkinson who connects him with a Russian actress and spy Olga Orlova who has deep contacts with Hitler's henchmen.Lots of intrigue, filming in Paris, Morocco and Hungary and a daring escape from Hungary. Good spy novel.

[gmmartz · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm a huge Alan Furst fan and this is his first novel that disappointed me. The story line was OK for the most part, but the dialogue and the atmosphere created by his narrative didn't exactly ring true. The dialogue in particular bothered me, especially early on in the story. Very "mannered" sounding, which along with the narrative attempted to create a glamorous milieu for the lead character, a famous American actor of Viennese descent.

In his previous books, you (or at least I) could sort of close my eyes and imagine the scene and the action taking place. Not so much in this one. It was still a decent read, but not one to savor. If you're just starting to read Furst, please start elsewhere.

[jbreedlove_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good read. Blew through the details of movie making and I would have liked to see more interaction w Stahl and the Germans. Also would have like more description of Constanta to Lisbon but he probably wanted to end the book.

[poquette_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As an off-and-on fan of spy novels and movies, I am both chagrined and pleased to have learned about Alan Furst a few days ago. Mission to Paris is not his latest novel, but I was attracted by the title and its reference to Paris.The novel takes place in 1938 and 1939, when pre-World War II tension was at its peak. Hollywood movie star Fredric Stahl — through a series of intra-studio machinations involving trading the services of one star for another — ends up being assigned to do a movie in Paris for the European market. Fredric is an émigré to the United States from Vienna and, because he does not have the protection U.S. citizenship would have afforded him, he is targeted by the Nazi propaganda machine to entice him into contributing to pro-Nazi cultural causes. Fredric resists, and the Nazis do not take no for an answer, so a game of cat and mouse ensues as he finds himself more and more threatened by the course of events.In addition to the intrigue that carries the story along, one receives several subtle lessons in WWII history that one is unlikely to have read about in the history books. Mission to Paris brought to the forefront the vulnerability in those years of émigrés to France from lands under Nazi influence or control. In the immediate lead-up to the war, Nazi agents operating in France sub rosa treated the émigrés almost as escaped criminals, and many of them, having no papers, were living in a constant state of fear of deportation or worse. The film Casablanca touches on this to some extent, but Furst manages to demonstrate how subtly the Nazis operated in this sphere even before the war had begun.The Nazis were also behind a so-called peace movement that fostered improved relations between France and Germany but really had as its motive to bring France under German hegemony without the necessity of an invasion. They had recruited émigré aristocrats and businessmen to their cause, trying to take advantage of the level of fear of a war with Germany that gripped all of Europe at the time. Mission to Paris weaves these issues into the action so you come away feeling doubly compensated for time invested in the book. Not only is it the fast-paced action that carries the reader along, but the book delivers an interesting historical perspective as well, and you come away with a better understanding of what it felt like to be in Paris at that crucial period. Alan Furst's writing is unexpectedly graceful and even lyrical at times. Here is how the novel opens:In Paris, the evenings of September are sometimes warm, excessively gentle, and, in the magic particular to that city, irresistibly seductive. The autumn of the year 1938 began in just such weather and on the terraces of the best cafés, in the famous restaurants, at the dinner parties one wished to attend, the conversation was, of necessity, lively and smart: fashion, cinema, love affaires, politics, and, yes, the possibility of war — that too had its moment.I find it hard to resist such evocative writing and will definitely look forward to reading more of Furst's books in the near future.

[barlow304 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Typical Alan Furst, which means exquisite historical detail, slow building tension with violence and menace lurking in the background. Here the background is Paris in late 1938 as the city panics over the Munich crisis and then slowly resigns itslef to more tension. The Germans are busy pulling strings in the French media to get what they want, even if that means the occasional murder is necessary. Furst's hero is an American screen actor who is seemingly sent to Paris to make a movie but who becomes part of an informal spy network run out of the American embassy. The actor himself is not aware of all the forces combining to influence him until the Nazis overplay their hand. Then he agrees to run an errand for the embassy that involves passing money to a beautiful but ruthless Russian spy.

[enemyanniemae · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was such a satisfying book! Interestingly enough, I found that it had a very slow start, so much so that had my commute been 10 minutes instead of 60, I quite possibly would have abandoned my introduction to Alan Furst and his teetering-on-the-edge-of-war Paris. Thank Bob my office moved to Bumfluck, Louisiana. And this is truly the only good thing about the move.I don't have much experience with spy novels, much less books about World War II. Actually, I don't think I have any experience at all. Aside from the Mrs. Pollifax novels by Dorothy Gilman, that's about it. (and daring to compare Gilman and Furst is like comparing Bram Stoker and Charlaine Harris) But Alan Furst has changed that. This wonderfully tense tale about an actor unwittingly drawn into Hitler's world was I really want to experience more of his dark late 30's Europe. I listened to an audio version and the narration was spot on. The accents were well delineated and the characters were each given a distinct voice. This was most enjoyable and I would recommend Mission to Paris to thriller fans everywhere.

[ddelmoni_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not sure why this was offered under the Goodreads ARC program(it was published 2 years ago) but, as always, I enjoy Alan Furst novels and Mission to Paris was no exception. Furst is a master at building pre-war atmosphere of Paris in the late 30's.