Meh. ( )

Seemed a fairly paint by numbers spy novel, a little flat except for the end. ( )

A quick and good read but a lot of fluff. Should have spent more time on being behind the lines than with the Marquesa. AF has written better ones. ( )

The usual suspects are here. Count Polanyi and the vizslas play a small but timely role, even good families have Nazi sympathizer cousins. S. Kolb shows up momentarily. Romance plays it's usual role. Max de Lyon is central to this story. He's flush with cash and ready to bribe anyone to get the arms into forbidden Spain. He's supplying arms to the war in Spain even though the Republicans are clearly losing. And of course much of the action takes place in Paris, Brasserie Heininger with it's bullet hole makes a predictable appearance as does Le Cygne. Most important there is the eventual appearance of the Santa Cruz, the tramp steamer, which was the central character in The Dark Voyage. What's new in Midnight in Europe is a Catalan lawyer. Even lawyer's are getting into the death spiral that is Europe. Things continue to look bad. This is just one of the last ditch efforts to avoid the unavoidable. ( )

historical fiction (spies & Nazis, adventure and romance). A patron recommended Furst to me (because I recommended in the Garden of Beasts, which I have not actually read but figured you couldn't go wrong with Erik Larson); however I think I prefer my historical stories to be true. I stopped around page 32, since I wasn't invested in any of the characters or multiple plotlines.

Also recommended in this genre: John LeCarre. ( )