1940 - The City of Lights has gone dark, and Nazi oppression crushes the land of Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality
American Oliver Carmichael loves his life in Paris, playing in a night club jazz band, and enjoying the freedom and intellectual stimulation of his bohemian set of friends. His happiness is tempered by unresolved feelings for his ex-fiancée, Lisette, especially after he sees her with another man in his club--but he tends those wounds with an affair with an older woman...and also with the boy next door.
His life is further disrupted when the Germans march into Paris, and several of his friends join the resistance. When an officer from the American Embassy, Frank Dryden, asks Oliver to keep tabs on his friends' resistance activities, Oliver is torn. What is the best way to help his friends? What is the right thing to do? Once in, there is no way out.
As the Gestapo and their allies in the French police close in, can Oliver save his friends without losing his own life or freedom? And just when it seems he will lose Lisette forever, Marcel offers Oliver an alternative-if they survive.
Set in German-occupied Paris during the early years of World War II, Gray Paree is the story of an American expat's struggle to reconcile with the love of his life, help his French friends resist tyranny, and do what is right.
If you enjoy Alan Furst's Night Soldiers novels, but would like to see LGBT characters, then you'll love Gray Paree.
