Espionage Aficionados discussion

Any reviews of Alan Furst's latest?

I assume you're referring to "Mission to Paris." I read it and was very disappointed. Honestly, I think the guy, who's obviously a tremendously talented writer, has been in steep decline for the past ten years. His first few books were amazing, and even his mediocre books are better than 99% of what's out there. But his last few books pale in comparison, his latest most of all.

A few weeks ago, I read "The Spies of Warsaw".

It's an encapsulation of the subtle and dark arts of espionage in interwar Europe. An art, which, through the passage of centuries, had been enhanced with the accoutrements of science.

The story begins in Poland in late 1937. A man who looks to be a modest businessman arrives in Warsaw, briefcase in hand. He books a room at the Hotel Europejski for an assignation with his mistress, a Polish countess. All is not as it seems. The businessman is Edvard Uhl, an engineer and specialist in tank design, who lives just across the border in Breslau. There is more to Herr Uhl than meets the eye. For some time, he had had some "dealings" with the French military attache. Both men had worked well together for some time. But now the attache has been recalled. His replacement is Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, born of the lesser nobility in the heart of the French countryside, a graduate of Saint Cyr (the French equivalent of West Point), where one of his classmates was a fellow officer by the name of Charles de Gaulle. Mercier is a veteran of the First World War and of the Russo-Polish War of 1920-21 (where he again renewed his acquaintance with de Gaulle).

Being an attache begins as a bit of a bewildering experience for Mercier le veuf. Besides making the acquaintance of his Polish counterparts, and ingratiating himself with the diplomatic community in Warsaw through endless rounds of parties graced with scintillating conversations, bubbly champagne, and fine food, Mercier has to learn --- quickly --- the skills deemed essential for being a successful spy. In the process, he embarks upon a journey with many twists and turns. A journey in which one step too far could be his last. The stakes are high. The margins --- infinite, given the increasingly fractious relations among Poland, Germany, and France.

Furst shows in this book why he is generally acknowledged as the master of the historical espionage novel. Espionage brings out both the best and most base aspects of people. In reading " The Spies of Warsaw", brace yourself for a thrilling and bumpy ride.

"Spies of Warsaw" is probably Furst's best recent book (unfortunately he's never recaptured the vigor of his early books). It's also a two-part miniseries that was recently shown on BBC America. Sadly, I missed it because my wife deleted it from our DVR before I got a chance to watch it. Needless to say, divorce proceedings are now underway.

I agree about Furst; the early books were terrific and then the quality got very uneven. Looked to me like the sign of a multi-book contract and the author getting tired of the job. But there were flashes: I thought Spies of the Balkans was pretty good.

Yes, even Furst's lesser books have lots of little gems in them (except for his most recent, Mission to Paris, which I found uncharacteristically heavy-handed). I liked Spies of Warsaw quite a bit though (would have liked to see the BBC miniseries but my wife deleted the first episode, an outrage I remind her of at every opportunity). The multi-book contract theory is a good one; the guy seems like he's like he's out of ideas, burned out (maybe he should take a break and write something entirely different--something that takes place in the present somewhere other than Paris perhaps?--anything to reset the creative clock. It's too bad, Night Solders and Dark Star are two of the best espionage novels I've read.

Night Soldiers and Dark Star are two of my favorite espionage novels, too. The characters, the settings, they're compelling and amazingly real. I want to live in those books. As for his most recent books, it does feel like someone is telling him to write them shorter and more straightforward. But--having said that--I really liked Mission to Paris.

Odd -- to me, there's no question Furst's
Sixth novel, "Kingdom of Shadows" is his best. It's got it all: a well-developed protagonist, an exciting plot, scads of ennui, and (surprisingly) a halfway well-developed female character.

Although the novel's scenes in the City of Light just prior to the Nazi invasion are, well, luminous, the events in Czechoslovakia and Hungary are maddeningly frightening, and heart-stopping suspense, in turn. As always, Furst's work is backed by impeccable research. This book is an especially effective history lesson (on the practical affect of appeasement) wrapped in a fog-shrouded espionage tale, wrapped in a war-time romance.

Although there's constant back-references (to places and events), Frust's books don't focus on the same characters, and thus need not be read in order. So should you not have read any Furst -- hard to imagine -- "Kingdom of Shadows" would be a great toe dip.