Trapeze

I finished reading Simon Mawer's Trapeze last night.  It could not be more different from Mendel's Dwarf, which I also enjoyed (you wouldn't think that a novel about the origins of genetics could be that compelling, but you'd be wrong).  Trapeze is about Marian Sutro, a young British woman who grew up in French-speaking Geneva, Switzerland.  She is recruited by the World War II equivalent of MI6.  Her mission is to make contact with and try to help a nuclear physicist escape from Nazi-occupied Paris.  The writing is beautiful, carefully researched (yes, I can tell) and Marian is a character whom you understand and root for.  Some less skillful novelist would cheat the ending, but Mawer doesn't.  The story ends just as it must.