Like his other WWII espionage books (The Polish Officer, Dark Star), Red Gold brings the seediness and squalidness of spying to the fore. This entry takes place almost entirely within German occupied France in 1941 and picks up the story of former filmmaker Jean Casson where it left off at the end of Night Soldiers (which I have not read). This novel is shorter and choppier than his others, and suffers in comparison. The story of Casson's recruitment to to the resistance and subsequent attempt to be a liaison between Vichy officers and the Communist underground is somewhat desultory and fails to excite or capture the imagination. The book's strength lies in its capturing of the atmosphere of occupied Paris, rather than the actual story.