It is 1938, and Paris is a place where influence and propaganda are manifestations of war by other means. (I see Mads Mikkelsen as Frederic, and yes, I know he is Danish) While our everyman in Mission to Paris may not exactly be just anyone, Frederic Stahl, a B-list movie star in Paris for a shoot, is, by virtue of his profession, a person of influence. In North by Northwest pop immediately to mind. Robert Donat as Hannay in Hitchcock’s classic Yes, I know he was an intel-guy in the book) and Roger Thornhill Richard Hannay in The Thirty Nine Steps (The film, of course. One of the things we enjoy most about spy stories is when a non-pro gets caught up in international intrigue. As always, Alan Furst brings to life both a dark time in history and the passion of the human hearts that fought to survive it. Mission to Paris includes beautifully drawn scenes of romance and intimacy, and the novel is alive with extraordinary characters: the German Baroness von Reschke, a famous hostess deeply involved in Nazi clandestine operations the assassins Herbert and Lothar the Russian film actress and spy Olga Orlova the Hungarian diplomat and spy, Count Janos Polanyi along with the French cast of Stahl’s movie, German film producers, and the magnetic women in Stahl’s life, the socialite Kiki de Saint-Ange and the émigré Renate Steiner.īut always at the center of the novel is the city of Paris, the heart and soul of Europe-its alleys and bistros, hotels grand and anonymous, and the Parisians, living every night as though it was their last.
What they don’t know is that Stahl, horrified by the Nazi war on Jews and intellectuals, has become part of an informal spy service being run out of the American embassy in Paris.įrom Alan Furst, the bestselling author, often praised as the best spy novelist ever, comes a novel that’s truly hard to put down. The Nazis know he’s coming-a secret bureau within the Reich Foreign Ministry has for years been waging political warfare against France, using bribery, intimidation, and corrupt newspapers to weaken French morale and degrade France’s will to defend herself.įor their purposes, Fredric Stahl is a perfect agent of influence, and they attack him. It is the late summer of 1938, Europe is about to explode, the Hollywood film star Fredric Stahl is on his way to Paris to make a movie for Paramount France.
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