Book Log 2012 #42: Red Gold by Alan Furst

In 1941 occupied Paris, the Soviet Union has instructed communists to do whatever they can to strike at the Nazi regime, which has abrogated its non-aggression pact and is rolling tanks towards Moscow. The communists in Paris are looking for a way to get arms and other materiel to strike at the Germans. The French resistance (and government in exile) is looking to cause trouble but not necessarily put their own people at danger. In the middle is former film producer Jean Casson, who escaped Gestapo captivity and now is looking to survive and perhaps do something to help France (and his new love interest, a travel agency worker of Jewish descent).

Not surprisingly, there are many similarities between this book and the other Furst novels in this loose series about men who operate in the shadows of war. There's a similar desperation, a decision between acting out of self-interest and acting in the interest of a greater cause, and the tension of living in a place and time where war may not be present but colors every moment.

Casson is apparently also the main character of The World at Night, which is set before this novel. From the blurb it probably makes sense to read that book before this one.