Basil's war : a novel / Stephen Hunter.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Basil St. Florian is an accomplished agent in the British Army, tasked with dozens of dangerous missions for crown and country across the globe. But his current mission, going undercover in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, might be his toughest assignment yet. He will be searching for an ecclesiastic manuscript that doesn't officially exist, one that genius professor Alan Turing believes may hold the key to a code that could prevent the death of millions and possibly even end the war.

St. Florian isn't the classic British special agent with a stiff upper lip--he is a swashbuckling, whisky-drinking cynic and thrill-seeker who resents having to leave Vivien Leigh's bed to set out on his crucial mission. Despite these proclivities, though, Basil's Army superiors know he's the best man for the job, carrying out his espionage with enough charm and quick wit to make any of his subjects lower their guards.

Action-packed and bursting with WWII-era intrigue (much of which has basis in fact), Basil's War is a classic espionage thriller from Pulitzer Prize-winning critic, essayist, and bestselling novelist Stephen Hunter.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

British Army Capt. Basil St. Florian, the hero of this terrific WWII thriller from bestseller Hunter (the Bob Lee Swagger series), is known for his wit, his bravery as a Special Operations Executive agent, and as a man who enjoys dating film stars like Vivien Leigh. In the spring of 1943, Basil parachutes into Nazi-occupied France, steals some identity papers, and catches a train to Paris, where his mission is to photograph pages from The Path to Jesus, a rare 18th-century pamphlet written by a Scottish ecclesiastic held in the library of a Paris museum. Stealing the pamphlet would alert the enemy that the British know the Nazis are using it as the basis of a secret code. Deciphering the code is key to catching a traitor employed at Bletchley Park, the Allied code-breaking center in England. The Nazis figure out a British spy is among them, and a clever German counterintelligence agent is soon hot on Basil's trail. Hunter adopts a breezy, boys' adventure book style that complements Basil's derring-do exploits. Readers will hope Basil will soon be back for more. (May)

Booklist Review

Hunter, author of the Bob Lee Swagger series starring an American master sniper, now changes directions, geographically, temperamentally, and almost every other way. Basil St. Florian is a British agent with Churchill's Special Operations Executive in WWII; he is everything Swagger isn't: an English aristocrat with a flair for the outrageous, known for "trysts with American actresses and fights with Argentinian polo players," who becomes a spy and puts his talent for subterfuge to unfailingly flamboyant use. His latest assignment finds him parachuting into occupied France in 1943, tasked with photographing pages from a rare religious tract that the Nazis are using as the basis of a book code. Tracked by a wily German spy hunter, Basil cavorts about Paris, staying a half step ahead of his pursuer. There is plenty of suspense here, but the tone is delightfully jaunty, as this "human relic of the Kipling imagination," seemingly on the verge of capture, finds himself appalled at landing in a situation that appears to be "bereft of irony." The same can't be said of a novel written by a man known for gunplay and straight-ahead action. Hunter's remarkable versatility is on full view in this utterly charming caper, and fortunately there appears to be a sequel in the offing, in which we devoutly hope that Basil's delayed tryst with Vivien Leigh will finally come to fruition.