Author Alan Furst has been enjoying a successful run as a writer of spy thriller novels for almost 20 years. He has published 13 novels, most recently in June of 2014, his 13th. He has focused on that period that fascinates historians to this time: 1930-1940, the inter war period. In Europe, it was a time of foreboding: Hitler's Germany was rearming, building a new war machine, and even worse: enacting laws aimed at driving the Jews from Germany. Russia was a player with Josef Stalin negotiating with Hitler on potential booty from client states taken over in the run up to war.
Furst captures the moment in Dark Star with a protagonist with the perfect cover: an internationally recognized writer/reporter with an interesting pedigree: a Polish Jew who is a Russian citizen on assignment in Paris to spy for the NKVD and provide information on Nazi capabilities and armaments.
The scene changes from Paris to Berlin to Moscow with the occasional side trip across the fields of Poland. He focuses this novel on the last months before war breaks out, and includes the earliest moments of the beginning when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. The trials and travails of Szara', the protagonist, keep the reader turning pages as he weaves his way through the chaos created by war and its shadow war behind the scenes as NKVD operatives continue to thin the ranks of Soviet spies on orders of the Kremlin. Furst ties in historical fact with a great story that features many interesting moments for our writer/spy. Furst knows the territory of Europe having lived in Paris for 20 years. He now lives in the USA, in New York.
I will definitely be reading more of Furst's work, especially his best seller: The Foreign Correspondent.
Rating: ****1/2
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