It's December, 1937, and Christian Ferrar, a Spanish emigre is living in Paris, a partner in a French law firm, Coudert Freres. He's travels all over Europe, even to the New York City, for his firm. The story begins and ends in New York with a writer named Eileen Moore. This is not, however, anything more than a homage to romance, as the story is really about the obligation that Ferrar's has toward the Republican government in Spain, the loyalists, who are fighting Franco and his fascists. Ferrar gets recruited by the Spanish embassy in Paris and along with arms dealer Max de Lyon, he tries to get armaments through the various blockages and restrictions, to the besieged government in Madrid. At first, it's guns from a arms maker in Czechoslovakia, then later, towards the end of the book, it's ammunition for anti aircraft guns from Odessa, needed to shoot down the Germany Messerschmidt's from Hitler's Germany. I read Furst's books for the atmosphere, the late 1930's in Europe, the intrigue, as people try to figure out what's really going on in Germany, as Hitler continues to build up his army and armaments. The sadness of the end is inevitable, as all the scheming, the risks taken, the deaths incurred, are all for naught as Franco ends up ruling Spain. And in this book, Furst seems to have given in to modernity, as there's a heavy romance as well, between Ferrar Moore in the beginning , then with a Spanish royalty, who turns out to be a spy for Franco albeit forced into it with threats to her family. I don't much remember these trysts from his other books. Still, I liked it enough to recommend. Not his best but worth reading.
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