Mission to Paris

It is the late summer of 1938, Europe is about to explode, the Hollywoodfilm star Frederic Stahl is on his way to Paris to make a movie for ParamountFrance. The Nazis know he's coming-a secret bureau within the Reich ForeignMinistry has for years been waging political warfare against France, usingbribery, intimidation, and corrupt newspapers to weaken French morale anddegrade France's will to defend herself.

For their purposes, Frederic Stahl is a perfectagent 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 aninformal spy service being run out of the American embassy in Paris.

From Alan Furst, thebestselling author, often praised as the best spy novelist ever, comes a novelthat's truly hard to put down. Missionto Paris includes beautifully drawn scenes of romance and intimacy, andthe novel is alive with extraordinary characters: the German Baroness vonReschke, a famous hostess deeply involved in Nazi clandestine operations; theassassins Herbert and Lothar; the Russian film actress and spy Olga Orlova; theHungarian diplomat and spy, Count Janos Polanyi; along with the French cast ofStahl'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 centerof the novel is the city of Paris, the heart and soul of Europe-its alleys andbistros, hotels grand and anonymous, and the Parisians, living every night asthough it was their last. As always, Alan Furst brings to life both a dark timein history and the passion of the human hearts that fought to survive it.

Alan Furst is widely recognized as the master of the historical spynovel. Now translated into seventeen languages, he is the author of Night Soldiers, Dark Star, The PolishOfficer, The World at Night, Red Gold, Kingdom of Shadows, Blood of Victory,Dark Voyage, The Foreign Correspondent, The Spies of Warsaw, and Spies of the Balkans. Born in NewYork, he now lives on Long Island.

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