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'Alan Furst's spy fiction is serious, even solemn: a good but never light read.' - Literary Review. '[Furst's] stories combine keen deductive precision with much deeper, more turbulent and impassioned aspects of character...Mr. Furst...is an incomparable expert at this game.' - New York Times. 'Furst's tales...are infused with the melancholy romanticism of Casablanca, and also a touch of Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon.' - Scotsman. 'Throughout, the author's delight in the process of espionage shines through.' - TLS.

As the Nazis openly plan an invasion, France's military attache in Warsaw does a little spying, eats good meals, travels a bit and spends time in pleasant surroundings with a lovely lawyer for the League of Nations.Wounded in the Great War, Col. Jean-Francois Mercier is a widower with two grown daughters, a vast Parisian apartment, a handsome, slightly shabby country estate and two fine hunting dogs. His current assignment in Poland has him mixing with the local swells - where he picks up bits of information on the tennis court and at dinners - and running a modestly successful intelligence operation involving Herr Uhl, a plump German engineer who swaps details of the Nazis new tank for nights of love with a zaftig Countess in Mercier's employ. From the various little bits of information Mercier has gleaned, it becomes depressingly evident that the Nazis are beefing up their tank warfare capability with an eye on the Ardennes forest, the quickest way around the impregnable Maginot Line in which France's thick-headed military leaders have placed their total trust. Then the Uhl operation falls apart. An obedient hausfrau sharing his train compartment reports Uhl's nervous behavior to the authorities, resulting in his nearly successful kidnapping by some overeager intelligence agents. Mercier's successful intervention in the snatch earns him a place on the Nazi hit list. Undaunted, the suave Frenchman plans a fake hike on the German border to photograph the latest tank war games, obtaining even more evidence of the Huns' strategy, which will yet again be ignored by the dinosaurs at the top of the French army. Offsetting the frustrations at work is a dalliance with beautiful Anna Szarbek, his blind date at an embassy dinner.Furst (The Foreign Correspondent, 2006, etc.) cuts back a bit on the usual tension, but there is all of the wonderfully wistful late-'30s atmosphere that is his specialty. (Kirkus Reviews)

'Furst's intelligent thriller, reeking with the doomed atmosphere of pre-war Polan...bristles with tension' DAILY MAIL 'Alan Furst's spy thriller is extraordinary for his mastery of period detail... enough twists along the way to satisfy even the most demanding reader' OBSERVER 'He builds tension and detail brilliantly.' MATURE TIMES

He builds tension and detail brilliantly. * MATURE TIMES * Alan Furst's spy thriller is extraordinary for his mastery of period detail... enough twists along the way to satisfy even the most demanding reader * OBSERVER * Furst's intelligent thriller, reeking with the doomed atmosphere of pre-war Polan...bristles with tension * DAILY MAIL *

'Furst's intelligent thriller, reeking with the doomed atmosphere of pre-war Polan...bristles with tension' DAILY MAIL 'Alan Furst's spy thriller is extraordinary for his mastery of period detail... enough twists along the way to satisfy even the most demanding reader' OBSERVER 'He builds tension and detail brilliantly.' MATURE TIMES

'Furst's intelligent thriller, reeking with the doomed atmosphere of pre-war Polan...bristles with tension' DAILY MAIL 'Alan Furst's spy thriller is extraordinary for his mastery of period detail... enough twists along the way to satisfy even the most demanding reader' OBSERVER

Author Information

Alan Furst has lived for long periods in France, especially in Paris and has travelled as a journalist in Eastern Europe and Russia. He has written extensively for Esquire and the International Herald Tribune. He lives in New York state.

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