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Product Description: An autumn evening in 1937. A German engineer arrives at the Warsaw railway station. Tonight, he will be with his Polish mistress; tomorrow, at a workers’ bar in the city’s factory district, he will meet with the military attaché from the French embassy. Information will be exchanged for money. So begins The Spies of Warsaw, the brilliant new novel by Alan Furst, lauded by The New York Times as “America’s preeminent spy novelist.”
War is coming to Europe. French and German intelligence operatives are locked in a life-and-death struggle on the espionage battlefield. At the French embassy, the new military attaché, Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, a decorated hero of the 1914 war, is drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal, and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of Warsaw. At the same time, the handsome aristocrat finds himself in a passionate love affair with a Parisian woman of Polish heritage, a lawyer for the League of Nations.
Colonel Mercier must work in the shadows, amid an extraordinary cast of venal and dangerous characters–Colonel Anton Vyborg of Polish military intelligence; the mysterious and sophisticated Dr. Lapp, senior German Abwehr officer in Warsaw; Malka and Viktor Rozen, at work for the Russian secret service; and Mercier’s brutal and vindictive opponent, Major August Voss of SS counterintelligence. And there are many more, some known to Mercier as spies, some never to be revealed.
The Houston Chronicle has described Furst as “the greatest living writer of espionage fiction.” The Spies of Warsaw is his finest novel to date–the history precise, the writing evocative and powerful, more a novel about spies than a spy novel, exciting, atmospheric, erotic, and impossible to put down.
“As close to heaven as popular fiction can get.”
–Los Angeles Times, about The Foreign Correspondent
“What gleams on the surface in Furst’s books is his vivid, precise evocation of mood, time, place, a letter-perfect re-creation of the quotidian details of World War II Europe that wraps around us like the rich fug of a wartime railway station.”
–Time
“A rich, deeply moving novel of suspense that is equal parts espionage thriller, European history and love story.”
–Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times, about Dark Star
“Some books you read. Others you live. They seep into your dreams and haunt your waking hours until eventually they seem the stuff of memory and experience. Such are the novels of Alan Furst, who uses the shadowy world of espionage to illuminate history and politics with immediacy.”
–Nancy Pate, Orlando Sentinel Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-08
Better than the last two, but...
I'm a long time Furst reader and big fan of his works prior to the last few. Spies of Warsaw is much better than the last two--The Foreign Correspondent and Dark Voyage...the former was hum drum and the latter just plain mediocre. Despite this fact, I can only give two stars here.
Other than "Correspondent" and "Voyage," Furst's espionage works of Europe on the eve of or during WWII are superbly written. One is gripped by the plot, enamored of the characters, and engrossed in the subtle, but real, suspense fearing the appearance of the Gestapo, NKVD, etc.
Spies of Warsaw is as good as Furst's best in creating likeable, believeable characters about whom the reader really cares...to me, the ultimate testament to excellent and enjoyable fiction. Our hero and heroine here, Mercier and Anna, are as good as his very best amorous pairs of past works...say Jean Casson and Citrine of the excellent The World at Night, set in occupied Paris.
Yes, this one was more "romantic" ("sexual," perhaps?) than most of the others. But it was beautifully done. If you have ever had the wonderful experience of an overnight trip on The Orient Express, The Royal Scotsman, etc. you will truly enjoy Mercier and Anna's encounter on the train.
So, why do I praise Furst as finally getting his act back together after a couple of subpar efforts and then rate it only two stars? There is the continuing problem that the book leaves you hanging in mid story at the end, ending abruptly with no warning in the narrative. Like The Polish Officer and The World at Night, Spies just ends. Nothing is resolved, the fate of the characters is in limbo, etc.
The "book" is only about 250 pages (multiple blank pages of padding between chapters, etc.) At 350 to 375 pages, like Dark Star and Night Soldiers, Furst's best works because he actually finished the story, this would be a truly great historical spy novel with well done romance to boot. It would also be fine as is, if Furst would pick up the story and the characters in a subsequent work.
We know, however, that Furst will never resurrect these characters again. In the last paragraph of the book, in just four sentences, he tells us what happens to our heroine and hero over the next six or seven years and the entire course of WWII! That was worse than the non-ending endings of his other incomplete works.
Is Furst getting too commercial, too sloppy, too much into "the life" now that he is a success, does he think he's Hemingway? Who knows. What we know we can expect from him now, at best, is a well written, engrossing story which will end abruptly leaving the reader very disappointed, even angry, at having had him do this to us again. A well written, but incomplete story which leaves me angry at the end doesn't get more than two stars from me.
For my money, read Dark Star and Night Soldiers and then move to another author who writes in this genre. If Furst can put forth the effort to develop a work of 350 pages or so, I'll bite again. But not before. Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-07
It was just ok
I have read other books by Alan Furst and enjoyed reading them, this one was just ok! It was difficult at times to keep tract of what was going on and with whom. I think this is an interesting time and place for a novel setting; but in spite of that, this book really did not keep my interest. I also felt that the author did not build any real connection with the main character. I will try again in the future to read one of mr. Furst books; but this one was not his best. Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-07
A Terrific Novel about Spies
This is not just a spy novel, but a novel about people
caught up in spying. The best quality about this book is
the interesting and vivid characters, even the side
characters. Furst also shows that the Nazis were pressing
their influence into Poland long before 1939. A lively and
intelligent read.
Steve Wiggins, author of "Streets of Warsaw"
Streets of Warsaw: A Novel of the Polish Resistance in World War II
Rating:
Date: 2008-07-06
Sharp and swift
This is my first time reading one of Alan Furst's books and I am very impressed. "The Spies of Warsaw" is something that grabs you by the hand and takes on a ride through the world of espionage. I like the angle of the story: What if the French didn't concentrate their defenses on the Maginot Line?
Mr. Furst also draws very exact characters and every one had their personality shine. I also was impressed that every part is a buildup to the climax and I could feel the tension and the frustration. There is no fluff in this book. It has certainly made me decide to read his other books as well. Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-06
Furst makes it seem so easy to be a Spy
In his latest novel, Furst takes on the byzantine world of espionage in interwar Warsaw. It's Casablanca without the palm trees and sand. Everyone has an agenda, and everyone is trying to get the goods on everyone else. Among these are the aristocratic french military attache Colonel Mercier. He comes from a long line of 'Chevalier (Knights of the King)' and is himself a decorated aviator from WW1. His job in Warsaw is to gather information on what the Germans plan to do vis a vis France.
While wandering through the embassy parties in Warsaw (like Jean Valjean) he encounters spies who want to recruit him, spies who want to kill him, spies who want them to smuggle them out of Poland; and the love of his life (a lawyer for the League of Nations). To all this Jean-Francois is so suave and cool, he makes James Bond look like 'Inspector Clouseau'.
It's an enjoyable read, and shines a spotlight on the little known 'Black Front' that had fought Hitler and the SA for control of the Nazi Party and lost. Good Read. |
