Mission to Paris [Unabridged] [Audible Audio Edition] Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B008ARPZ00 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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From the New York Times best-selling author and the "modern-day master of the genre" (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).
Direct download links available for Download Mission to Paris
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 9 hours and 12 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: June 12, 2012
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B008ARPZ00
Allan Furst's WWII-era espionage novels are always entertaining and "Mission to Paris" is no exception. In the tradition of the author's previous work, there is a male protagonist working against the Nazis in a European setting (Paris and Berlin mostly this time), with a supporting cast of interesting characters (friends, lovers, collaborators and conniving opponents with vicious intent). Fans of the genre know that Furst's books are a kind of literary comfort food--this one is French bistro cuisine all the way.
More specifically, the focus of "Mission..." is film actor Fredric Stahl, an Austrian-born emigre who has built a successful career in Hollywood and finds himself, in mid-1938, loaned out by his studio to a French film company to star in a "Beau Geste" kind of flick that ironically is a commentary on the tragedies of war. Arriving in Paris, Stahl soon finds himself the center of attention for a group of German sympathizers bent on keeping France from opposing Hitler's ambitions in Europe. Stahl's own nascent political views are very much in the other direction and he is gradually dragged into a propaganda war that is heating up in Paris and elsewhere. All of this happens, while he undertakes the demanding work of making the film, "Apres La Guerre". Eventually, and very much against his own will and inclination, Stahl's position as a highly visible public figure leads to increasingly dangerous involvement with the Nazis.
While "Mission to Paris" is a good read, I found it to have less edge and dynamic tension than most of its predecessors. The protagonist, for example, is a decent and interesting guy, but doesn't come across as the brightest bulb in the chandelier at times.
For true believers, nothing is better than a new Alan Furst book. Once more, Europe is on the edge of World War II. Once more, someone who wasn't planning on it is drawn into the fight. And once more, you want to join him and enlist.
Fredric Stahl, hero of this one, is a little different from Furst's usual military men and cops. He's a celebrity, a Hollywood star, an Austrian-born leading man now in Paris to make a movie, loaned by Warner Brothers to Paramount in return for Gary Cooper. Stahl recalls the carefree Paris of the 1920s, where he first got into film, but now wonders how wise it is to visit the Paris of 1938.
Now there's foreboding of war: Hitler has demanded and got Czechoslovakia, and some, but not enough, see the Anglo-French appeasement will merely encourage a bully who feeds on fear. The French call up the reserves, then let them go, but the crisis puts everyone's nerves on edge.
Not everyone thinks war is inevitable. But the parties wanting to avoid it at any cost, the Franco-German friendship types, the war-is-too-terrible-and-we-must-never-fight-another types - are, rather than the usual left-wing pacifists, all directed and funded by Berlin. Publishers are being paid off to manipulate French public opinion. Pro-fascist French industrialists are in on it. And wouldn't this cabal love to have the movie star Stahl come out against war?
Stahl is first cultivated, then stalked by friends of the Reich. Then an American consul asks if Stahl can help his adopted homeland. Stahl wants nothing to do with the Nazis, but realizes it's time to make a stand, and the way he can help is by acting - going along with them, acting like he doesn't mind to carry out a secret mission. Meanwhile, though, his film friends wonder which side he's really on.
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