{review} the spies of warsaw

{Ed. This is last week's blogger disappearing post.}

Alan Furst The Spies of Warsaw (2008)

Now this is a very good spy novel - a meaty historical espionage novel, filled with wonderful period details and well-written to boot. 

It is 1937. Colonel Jean-François Mercier is running spies from the French embassy in Warsaw. The French are playing a tricky game, trying to support Poland and undermine the old enemy Germany. What are the German plans for Poland? And - most importantly for the under-prepared and internally divided French  government - what might the Nazi regime be planning for France? 

Mercier embarks on a quest to uncover the extent of the German menace and makes some dangerous enemies in the process. This is a complicated novel, filled with fascinating characters whose motives are almost always ambiguous. In a world where no one is quite what they seem (including his French colleagues), Mercier's dangerous game could cost him his life and imperil his loved ones. 

Mercier is a great hero figure: honest, honorable, handsome and - obviously - heroic. He's the sort of figure who makes the reader long for a sequel. What is particulary interesting for the reader is that one knows that, despite all of Mercier's heroism, France is ultimately doomed. This knowledge sends a shiver up the spine, particularly in the book's deliberately rose-tinted views of a thoughtlessly carefree Paris. The travel scenes in the The Spies of Warsaw make one long for this lost, glamorous 1930s' Europe.

Rating: 8/10.

If you liked this... there are many more Fursts of course and in terms of quality I think that David Downing's Berlin stations series comes pretty close too (Zoo Station is the first in the series). Hmmm, they've all got spookily similar covers.