Paris,a winter night in 1938: a murder/suicide at a discreet lover's hotel. But this is no romantic tragedy - it is the work of OVRA, Mussolini's fascist secret police, and is meant to eliminate the editor of Liberazione , a clandestine emigre newspaper. Carlo Weisz, who has fled from Trieste an secured a job as a foreign correspondent with the Reuters bureau, becomes the new editor.
Weisz is, at the moment, in Spain, reporting on the last campaign of the Spanish civil war. But as soon as he returns to Paris, he is pursued by the French Surete, by the agents of OVRA, and by officers of the British SIS. In the desperate politics of Europe on the edge of war, a foreign correspondent is a pawn, worth surveillance, or blackmail or murder.
This story does not quite have the tension that the other stories of Furst's I've read have. The main reason I think is that the story moves between countries, has many bit players and so does not have claustrophobic feel of some of the others. However, this is a small quibble as these are a great series.
This is historically accurate and as all these novels conveys the bravery that the 'little people' displayed when faced by monsters.
A good solid story.
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