The Spies of Warsaw

The novel takes place in Europe in the late 1930’s just before the start of WWII. As in his other books of this series the main character (s) are dealing with the time of political and social turmoil and kind of fall into situations not of their making, ie espionage. But the book is not just about spies. Great detail goes into the history of the times, the aristocratic classes that rule the countries and how each countries military’s deal with the inevitable coming war. The story line dovetails with historical facts. The authors knowledge of the times, and his great attention to detail of characters and “situations” that occur are unmatched and make this another excellent and enjoyable book to read.

Furst has an amazing ability to immerse the reader in the ambiance of the era of the runup to WW2 in Europe. He doesn’t modernize or sugarcoat or pander to current day attitudes. He is an amazing author. There’s an enormous amount of well researched history in all his books, but they’re not infodumps. I can’t recommend him highly enough.

For the curious, the recent David Tennant movie called Spies of Warsaw covered the incidents in this novel plus a borrowing from the first part of The Polish Officer. The movie has real location scenery (it’s not all CGI), so you might want to rent it sometime to have some visual referents. Not that it isn’t a good movie on its own; it is. I mention it here because it was the thing that led me to Furst’s books, and I am so glad it did.

What an absolute gem this was. There are French spies, Russian spies, German spies and Polish spies all working in Warsaw in 1937.

Colonel Mercier , a French Military Attache is tasked with intelligence gathering in the city and through the diplomatic circle that his work takes him through.

There is no James Bond manoeuvres just solid plodding but this makes for very intense reading as failure is fatal. Reviews I’ve read state that the book is historically accurate as well which is always good to know.

Highly recommended if you like your espionage stories real. I won’t watch the TV series as the book was so good it would not be able to come up to the same level.

The Spies of Warsaw is a well-researched, intelligent, subtle novel that weaves espionage, romance and atmosphere into a wholly satisfying experience. I felt I was in 1938 Poland with the specter of war looming on the horizon. Some may call the book slow, expecting Clancy, Follett or Le Carre. Furst writes more in the tradition of (a less cynical) Greene. This is not an action thriller with guns blazing and car chases. It is more than that. By contrasting the mundane work of protagonist Mercier, the French Foreign Attache, with the operations (i.e., spy missions) he must undertake from time-to-time, the danger and intrigue is that much more palpable and believable.

And, although Mercier is a dashing French military hero with the scars and a limp to show for it, most of the spies of Warsaw are an intriguing assortment, among them a plump German engineer and his pragmatic “Countess”/seductress, a married Russian couple well beyond their prime, a homely professor and an unassuming Nazi supplies clerk — they feel real, the action feels real, the danger feels real. And the aftermath, sadly, was real.

The narrator of the audiobook version has a mellow, entrancing, seductive voice that perfectly fits the tone of the book. His wonderful accents (Polish, French, Russian, German, working-class, thugs and aristocrats) brought the novel’s varied characters to life. Loved the book; loved the audio version.

Although I told myself I wouldn’t, I finally did break down and pay hardcover price for Alan Furst’s latest. I just can’t stay away from Furst novels, nor can I imagine why I’d want to.

There’s still lots of atmosphere and a more recognizable plot than some of his novels have. This takes place in Warsaw and France, and the protagonist is French. Writing France of this period is Furst’s strongest suit and this plot, although based primarily in Poland, lets him use plenty of French detail. In Warsaw, Colonel Mercier, the new French military attache, finds himself in a crossroads of prewar intrigue, as the French, Germans, Poles, and Russians jockey for position, spying on one another and trying to discern, most of all, Germany’s intentions.

Mercier, a limping World War One veteran still dashing enough to play tennis with a princess, worries not only about Germany’s war plans but about France’s inability to recognize them. Petain’s crowd wants to build the Maginot Line and refight the first war; De Gaulle recognizes this war will be more about tanks and planes than about the static trench warfare of the Western Front. Mercier, handed a low-level German industrial source blackmailed into spying, starts to discern the German plan. And romantic sparks fly with a League of Nations lawyer inconveniently involved with another man.

Furst is particularly good at conveying, both in general and through his characterizations, the ethnic crosscurrents of Eastern Europe, nationalities with rivalries dating back millenia, hastily organized into shaky states less than two decades old, and he creates an intriguing angle using obscure but fascinating information on the Black Shirts Hitler purged in 1934.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member