The Spies of Warsaw: A Novel

The reviewer below puts it so succinctly, "Furst's best works have already been written". Yes, the atmosphere of pre-war Mittel Europa is as well-evoked as ever but where is the narrative drive and the tension? Has Furst now largely lost interest in action and suspense or is it that he's lost the ability to create them?
Night Soldiers and Dark Star are two of the finest genre novels I've ever read. Spies of Warsaw, in comparison, is thin stuff.

I thought that this book was very realistic. It described the kind of people who were very influential in helping the Allies win the war. Alan Furst is definitely an expert in this type of genre.

This book falls well short of Night Soldiers, Dark Star and Polish Officer. The storyline in Spies of Warsaw is weak and lacks suspense. I miss the cat-and-mouse feints of Furst's earlier works.

Alan Furst has a rare and amazing talent that enables a reader to experience the locations in the book with all the senses. His writing is compact, yet his economy of words only increases the sense of being there. I have been to the Brasserie Heininger many times with many different characters. I have smelled the cigarette smoke and I have heard the raucous laughter. I have marveled at the bullet hole in the mirror behind table 14 and have enjoyed several meals, all courtesy of this gifted author. And as always I leave that fine establishment as I leave all of his novels; hungry for more and looking forward to my next visit.

Start with any of his books and read them in any order. You will find yourself returning to familiar places with new people, and occasionally you'll bump into those people again in another story. Such is the joy of reading Furst. It's like being on the A-List in late 1930's Europe. You're always in the middle of the excitement with the most interesting people.

Alan Furst is one of the most under rated authors writing today. He is a master of the historical thriller, and his books paint a disturbing, and all too lifelike picture, of a world on the verge of a world war. Furst's lastest book, "The Spies of Warsaw," takes place in and around Warsaw and Central Europe in 1937, two years before Hitler actually launches the world into war. Nevertheless the storm clouds are already menacing, and Furst creates an unlikely spy in the person of a French embassy military attache officer, Jean-Francois Mercier. After loosing an informant, Mercier is recruited to find out more about Hitler's planned attack on France, and his developing armored warfare capabilities. In the midst of this mission, Mercier is approached by Russian spies, falls in love, suceeds in his quest only to be rebuffed by the very people who emply him, and is hunted down by a revengeful SS agent. All of it brillliantly constructed, brilliantly executed, and wonderfully evocative. Furst is a master at what he does - and one can only wish he was more prolific in his output