Andre Szara survivor of the Polish pogroms & the Russian civil wars is a journalist working for Pravda in 1937. War in Europe is already underway & Szara is co-opted to join the NKVD the Soviet secret intelligence agency. He does his best to survive the tango of pre-war politics by calmly obeying orders & keeping his nose clean. But when he is sent to retrieve a battered briefcase the plot thickens & is drawn into even more complex intrigues. Szara becomes a full-time spymaster & as deputy director of a Paris network he finds his own star rising when he recruits an agent in Berlin who can supply crucial information. Dark Star captures not only the intrigue & danger of clandestine life but the day-to-day reality of what Soviet operatives call special work.