Review

Catalonian Cristian Ferrar is a high powered attorney working for a US international law firm in their Paris office and is recruited by the Spanish Republic to act from time to time on their behalf. As is customary in Furst novels, he has three missions, experiences a good deal of danger, meets a beautiful woman, and … well, that would be telling.

Despite the danger and intrigue, this novel has a very low key feel, as have most of the Furst novels I’ve read. The point, I think, is to emphasize that people are doing their jobs, or that they are doing what they know to be right, and that adventure is no part of the goal of anything they do.

The weakest part of this story is Furst’s portrayal of the two main female characters; or maybe not the portrayal, but Furst’s relationship to those characters. He seems a bit awkward with sex scenes, interjecting weak attempts at humor. But, minor matter: the sex and romance doesn’t need to stand on its own legs, as long as it drives the main plot forward.

In all, this was not Furst’s best effort, but a good read nonetheless.

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