Kingdom of Shadows

This is the 10th Furst novel I have read, and I have finally realized he is the best of writers and the worst of writers. The best in that he very accurately covers the mood and details of the period leading up to WWII in the various countries affected by the war. His descriptions of characters and situations are colorful and intense. When reading each of his many “micro plots” within every one of his novels, I am glued to the page. However, that is symbolic of his worst feature, namely that I can never see the forest through the trees. Furst’s writing style of “spy stories” is very similar to John le Carre’s style. They both have subtle and half-hidden “clues” to the main plot, which if I were a “serious intelligence agent” could understand and track the entire plot throughout the book . . . but I am not. I read for pleasure and enjoyment, and love a novel with a plot that is mostly obvious so I can follow it from one day to the next. I enjoy the mystery and suspense of a book I can’t stop reading . . . and can’t wait to start my next reading session with every aspect of the plot still in mind. Unfortunately, both Alan Furst and John le Carre develop their plots with obtuseness, complexity, and obscurity which I cannot track from one day to the next . . . not my style I finally realize.

Welcome to Night Soldiers, the brilliant series by one of our most accomplished writers of espionage novels.

Meet Nicholas Morath, 44, is an aristocratic Hungarian living in Paris, where he is a partner in an advertising firm. His uncle, Count Janos Polanyi, is a senior diplomat in the Hungarian mission to France who is engaged in organizing the resistance to Hitler in Eastern Europe. World War II hasnt yet started in earnest Germanys Anschluss with Austria is still weeks away, and the occupation of the Czech Sudetenland on the distant horizon but Polanyi sees the future with clarity. He presses his nephew into taking on a dangerous mission in Budapest . . . and the trouble begins.

Morath, known as Nicky to Cara, his young Argentine lover, is one of those world-weary Europeans who surely abounded on the Continent during the fateful years of the 1930s. He was doomed to live with a certain heaviness of soul, not despair, but the tiresome weight of pushing back against it. It had cost him a wife, long ago, an engagement that never quite led to marriage, and had ended more than one affair since then. As war approaches, Moraths already complicated life becomes ever more challenging. His work for his uncle exposes him to grave danger. The stakes grow as the months go by. And the suspense increases apace.

Kingdom of Shadows is the sixth of the thirteen novels in Alan Fursts Night Soldiers series. Each of these finely crafted stories features its own protagonist, typically a man in early middle age engaged in (or about to become engaged in) a love affair who is reluctantly drawn into a role in espionage. The setting shifts from the Balkans to Iberia and Paris to Warsaw, but the cast of characters often overlaps. In this manner, Furst has created a finely textured portrait of Europe before and during World War II.

For reviews of some of Fursts other historical espionage novels, go to Spies of the Balkans, Red Gold, Midnight in Europe, and Mission to Paris.

Took me at least till half of the book to “get into it”..and wondering why I was still reading 🙂 VERY frustrating not to know at times these characters.. but perservering was good.. I really enjoyed this book after all..I love history and had google right there at most pages and then lost myself in exploring the various places mentioned..fairly obscure places but enjoyed seeing them,reading their history etc..that’s what a good book will do for you.lead you on to other facets of history that are interesting.. so the plots have been explained by others here..and I am off to buy another one of Furst’s books 🙂

Its 1938 in Paris where Nicholas Morath works at his advertising agency. His clandestine spy activities are on behalf of his uncle, Count Janos Polanyi, a diplomat in the Hungarian legation. In September, when Parisians return to the city from their August vacations, Hitler is screaming at them from every newspaper stand. The people are sick and tired of it. But when Novembers rain appears, they are content in their warm bistros with their new and exciting love affairs. Then it all changes during the night of November 9th, Kristallnacht, when shimmering tons of Jewish glass could be read more clearly than anything.
Morath manages to spend evenings with Cara, his Argentine mistress. But when she must satisfy family obligations and return to her native country, Morath is not heartbroken for long. Enter Mary Day, writer of novels about Suzette and her various sexual adventures.
Morath travels frequently to various Southeastern European countries on behalf of his uncle, handily staying one step ahead of local police or the ever-present German spies. A good map of this area during 1938-1939 is provided at the books front. However, Moraths adventures read like business-as-usual and dont inspire the excitement and tension of other Furst novels. Its all very interesting but not one of his better efforts.

This story gets off to a slow start, even for diehard Furst fans. It does eventually come together, although with quite a few tangents. You have to read between the lines a bit. Furst’s style of writing is subtle and he doesn’t spell everything out. His novels are also close enough to the mundane meanderings of real life–even while his characters are up to their eyeballs in espionage–that they could almost be mistaken for nonfiction. Protagonist Nicholas Morath manages to juggle a dual existence, maintaining normal relationships, attending parties, taking vacations, and the like, even though he knows everything is about to come crashing down around his ears. However, realism doesn’t always read well and might not appeal to those who prefer over-the-top characters and cover-to-cover action.

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