Oliver Carmichael is a musician.
He is a trumpet player and a jazz affionado who, during the days leading up to the Second World War and the invasion of Paris. That capitol city is where we first meet Carmichael as he is where he is usually to be found most evenings, playing a set with a small group at perpetually cigarette smoke haze filled Le Chein Errant (The Stray Dog). It is April of 1940 and within just over two months the Nazis will control the city and Carmichael's life will be changed in a way he would never have imagined.
Carmichael would not ever have considered that he would become a spy for anyone. The fact that it would be for his native America would definitely surprise him since he was living in France and loving it. But when the Germans take control and many of Carmichael's friends decide to do something and join the Reistance, he is approached by a man from the American embassy, Frank Dryden, to keep an eye on their activity and to report his learnings to Dryden.
This will put Carmichael smack in the middle of trouble that he would have normally earnestly avoided. He was a trumpet player, not an underground fighter or an operative. Even after he barely survives the events of the first recorded adventure and flees, as did many, to other parts of France - in his case, Lyon - he will find his services still desired by both Dryden with U.S. Intelligence and with his friends in the Resistance.
The two adventures of Carmichael are a combination of espionage suspense from his undercover work as well as romantic suspense as Carmichael will be seen finding comfort and solace in the arms of beautiful woman, and at least one young man who lives nearby.