I normally enjoy spy novels, but for some reason I had a very difficult time getting into this book. I kept picking it up and putting it down again. Too much exposition, or a hard-to-relate-to setting (rich folk in France between the wars), or something. I thought the pace would get better after the initial assassination attempt, but really it took until about chapter 11 before I was able to lose myself in the story. Also I found it a bit jarring that the story was mostly told from the perspective of the main character, but every now and then switched to be the perspective of another character--not often enough for her to share the limelight equally, just often enough to confuse me for a bit. Now that I've finished the book, I can appreciate the author's plan to develop the main character, peeling away the civilized veneer until he turned into the spy he once was. However, since most of the story was told from his perspective, and since he is an essentially thoughtful and considerate person, it's hard to believe that he is ruthless or vicious. That said, if there is a sequel, I'll probably read it just to find out what happens next. Mark Mills's "House of the Hunted" is an espionage thriller that offers protagonist Tom Nash a myriad of twists and turns in attempting to find out who is trying to kill him. Just when you think you know how it will end, something changes the course of events. Mills is very descriptive in his writing and has a full cast of characters that bring an array of personalities. But the novel plods along in some parts, due in part to being overly descriptive and having too many characters to keep track, but the story's final chapters move in a flourish to take hold of the reader.
