The Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst

Thought a change of pace was due in the posts. Sort of like Becky's "Valley of the Dolls" without the drugs. The story concerns an Italian refugee living in Paris just before WWII and writing for Reuters. He's also the new editor of an underground Italian newspaper critical of the fascists. The old editor got shot in a staged double murder and the paper's remaining workers deal with the Italian secret police operating in Paris who are trying to take them out and close the paper. There's also a couple of love interests that pop up with complications.

Although the story sounds trite or pedestrian it is saved by the author. He makes the characters believable and the action moves along without too much violence or car chasing. The author who comes closest to him appears to be John LeCarre in his earlier books. Not quite as bleak but relatively realistic. If you like political intrigue, you should like this book. I did.