In 1943, on New York’s Long Island, American intelligence operative Conor Thorn is testifying at the trial of his late wife Grace’s rapist, Buster Seaker, the son of a high-powered political official. Although his testimony goes well, he can’t keep his rage contained and winds up in a fight with the offender on his way out of the courtroom, which leaves the trial’s outcome in question. He goes abroad to London, where he faces a new problem: He doesn’t know where his current love, Emily, has been assigned for a covert mission. Desperate to reconnect and ensure her well-being, he finds himself trying anything to get assigned to the same case, or to a similar case near her. As luck would have it, the mission to uncover a double agent allows Conor to be covertly dropped into Paris, where Emily is working to find and bring back an important medievalist researcher named Beth Killane, whose sister’s daughter is ill and in desperate need of a major surgery in order to survive. All plotlines wind up intertwining, and much blood will be shed in the end. And, despite accomplishing the mission, not everyone’s lives can be spared. As the fifth in a series centering on a sometimes-impulsive and perhaps not-always-believable main character, Dyer appears to repeat a formula from past entries as he skillfully places historical figures in the narrative who provide a solid sense of veracity, even if their characterization can be thin. Still, the appealingly short chapters with location and date headings make for tight pacing and high tension as the multiple plotlines ramp up. Overall, the engaging locations, storylines, and characters are sure to satisfy fans of the genre.