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I loved the claustrophobic sense of the final days of Vichy Paris conjured by Kennedy in this novel. Nobody knows whom they can trust. The German obsession with surveillance and monitoring is all-encompassing. Food is short. But there are chatter networks and Alex's aunt Madeline is mistress of them. She's a wonderful figure in the novel - clever, articulate, compassionate, but also deceptive and ruthless as she has to be. The various secret service agencies and operatives - both British and American - are working against each other as much as with each other. But Alex's determination to find Justine allows him to cut through the obfuscation and concentrate on what matters most.

''The Things That are Lost'' is a love story, a spy story and an examination of a little known aspect of Paris under German occupation during WW2 - a novel that is hard to characterise but fabulous to read. As the characters edge towards denouement, so does the war. And it's heartless and cruel at times, as you'd expect, but it's also a stirring portrait of human love and courage. I'll be sad to let Alex and Justine go, but the conclusion of their story made for a very satisfying end to Alan Kennedy's well-researched, delicately written wartime trilogy. It would suit any reader with an interest in WW2 or who enjoys a thriller with complicated plotting, deft characterisation and intelligent, accurate research backing it up.