The Spies of Warsaw

Night Soldiers #10

by Alan Furst

War is coming to Europe. French and German intelligence operatives are locked in a life-and-death struggle on the espionage battlefield. At the French embassy, the new military attache, Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, a decorated hero of the 1914 war, is drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal, and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of Warsaw. At the same time, the handsome aristocrat finds himself in a passionate love affair with a Parisian woman of Polish heritage, a lawyer for the League of Nations." Colonel Mercier must work in the shadows, amid an extraordinary cast of venal and dangerous characters - Colonel Anton Vyborg of Polish military intelligence; the mysterious and sophisticated Dr. Lapp, senior German Abwehr officer in Warsaw; Malka and Viktor Rozen, at work for the Russian secret service; and Mercier's brutal and vindictive opponent, Major August Voss of SS counterintelligence. And there are many more, some known to Mercier as spies, some never to be revealed.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Espionage, World War II, Thriller, Mystery, Historical

290 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 3, 2008

About the author

Alan Furst is widely recognized as the current master of the historical spy novel. Born in New York, he has lived for long periods in France, especially Paris. He now lives on Long Island.

Night Soldiers novels
* Night Soldiers (1988)
* Dark Star (1991)
* The Polish Officer (1995)
* The World at Night (1996)
* Red Gold (1999)
* Kingdom of Shadows (2000)
* Blood of Victory (2003)
* Dark Voyage (2004)
* The Foreign Correspondent (2006)
* The Spies of Warsaw (2008)
* Spies of the Balkans (2010)
* Mission to Paris (2012)
* Midnight in Europe (2013)
* Under Occupation (2019)

Stand-alone novels
* Your day in the barrel (1976)
* The Paris drop (1980)
* The Caribbean Account (1981)
* Shadow Trade (1983)

For more information, see Wikipedia.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book turned up on my GoodReads list a couple of weeks ago.

What started as a snack turned into a meal and then into a banquet. I am now working on my seventh Furst book a la Kindle.
If Le Carre approaches the point of departure where "spy thriller" become serious literatire, Furst easlily transcends it.

His heroes are all Liberals. In the classic sense of the term. They hate Hitler and Stalin equally. I am down with every one of them.

Furst pretty much writes the same book over and over -- and I love every second of it. All of them are set in those watching-the-car-wreck-in-slow-motion years just before WWII. The setting almost always includes Paris. A kind of noir, before-the-war Paris with lots of trench coats, femme fatales and guys following you around.

A restaurant he mentions in every book is La Brasserie Heininger. It has at its table 14 a bullet hole in the mirror resulting from a Bulgarian shoot out in the men's room in the 1930's. Management decided to leave it unrepaired as a memento. This was also the table where a notorious British female spy used to seduce many lovers into giving up secrets or working for British SIS. Oh yes and they have great sauerkraut -- or "choucroute" the French version of course.

So I Google this place because I want to go there before I die. And up pops this link to Claremont.

http://www.claremont.org/publications...

Guess what, I am not the first winger to stumble onto Furst. Here's what they say:

"If you’re a hero in an Alan Furst novel, and you are, you will do what you must; what you can. What else is there to do? In the world of Alan Furst, you will be pitilessly squeezed in the most diabolical vice ever invented for the soul of man, between the Communist neo-Machiavellians of universal history and the fascist neo-Machiavellians of national romanticism, whose armies and secret police, resolute in murderous cynicism, are crushing between them what is left of the moral universe of Europe, of Western civilization in the epochal years 1933-1945."

And of Brasserie Heininger

"There, on an ordinary night, you will find “magnificent bedlam—the music of forks and plates, the ring of crystal glasses touched in toast, manic conversation, unbridled laughter, shouted greetings to friends at far tables. The huge mirrors [glitter] red and gold, the waiters [run] to and fro with trays of langoustines and bottles of champagne.” And the most colorful characters in the world. Kiko Bettendorf, the racing driver. The Duchess of Trent, accompanied by her deerhounds. The mysterious Mlle. M., perhaps with both her lovers."

Alas, Google reveals there is no such place as Brasserie Henninger. However, Furst's location is aparently modelled on a real restaurant called Bofinger near the Bastille. Do they have a table 14 I wonder?

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read every novel written by Alan Furst. He is the best writer of WWII and pre-WWII historical espionage fiction. His novels are both plot and character driven. His best books are very atmospheric, suspenseful, thoroughly engaging and full of nuanced personal and historical detail. The big events before and during the war occur in his novel but Furst doesn't focus on them. His focus is on the smaller but important events and he takes an intimate look at the lives of the people involved in these events.

I recently decided to reread some of Furst's novels. I started with The Spies of Warsaw because it was immediately available. 13 years ago I gave it 4 stars. Today I'm giving it 3 stars. Unfortunately, it failed to keep me engaged but that may be because I recently watched a TV adaptation (which was excellent) and wasn't yet ready for a rerun. So take my rating with a grain of salt. Other readers may love this novel though I wouldn't recommend it to first time Furst (!) readers. The first 8 or 9 novels in his Night Soldiers series are his best.

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

ORIGINAL REVIEW ... An excellent spy story, set in Warsaw, Prague and other venues before the German invasion of Poland. ... SPOILER ALERT ... Perhaps the most intriguing aspect is the question of what was known to the French about German invasion plans ... and how that information was ignored. I am left wondering how close Furst's depiction comes to verifiable truth.

UPDATE 6/2/17 ...

I re-read the book and enjoyed it again. The descriptions of places and espionage activities are simply superb, as good as any I've read, and the action is fast-paced.

REGARDING GERMANY'S INVASION PLANS ... It seems clear that accurate predictions of how Germany would invade France were well known long before the invasion. Churchill, for one, had figured it out and communicated his conclusions, shortly after the German occupation of the Rhineland was allowed to stand by France and Britain. The French military leaders were committed to defending their Maginot line and refused to consider or prepare for the alternative Germany was clearly preparing to execute. De Gaulle understood their folly but was unable to convince his superiors.

I will be dealing with these issues, including Churchill's frustrations, in the sequel to my novel A Flood of Evil.

[Nancy-jo]

This is not a spy novel, but a novel of espionage and the politics of war, or in this instance, of preparation for war. Mercier is a military attache assigned to Warsaw; he collects information from the Poles and the Germans and from an insignificant seeming German engineer who has access to military plans. There is a rich cast of characters, and awonderful detailing of daily life, politics, and the lead-up to war in Warsaw and Paris. Some of the individuals are real and others are fictional. The book drops you into the intricate webs of class, relationships, and politics as they shift in response to the onset of war. Furst creates a great story of a kind of unreliable suspense -- Mercier slowly collects information that indicates that Germany will invade with blitzkrieg, but politics and bureaucrats don't believe it, and as the reader already knows, Mercier's information might have saved France from occupation. The background events are heartbreaking -- the Jews are already suffering, and the two Russian spies, a Jewish couple, realize that Russia will no longer be their home. It's a great read because it has an enthralling plot and great characters, but also because you are back in a time when great events took place, sometimes because of the most insignificant actions.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Furst is a genre master, historical spy novels set in the 30s and early 40s, whose sense of history comes from Tolstoy and understanding of the scale of human drama comes from the short stories of Chekov and Joyce. Furst’s novels are compact. The action occurs on the margins of great events. They have the ring of truth in their every detail, whether it’s a period detail or the details of how real events play out with small climaxes and anti-climaxes. The tales remain satisfying because even though the end isn’t one of Hollywood splash (your exploding triumph), the scale is personal so there is relief in survival, in small victories of hard-earned knowledge and grace under fire.

Each Furst novel is, if not better than its predecessor at least as good. I’ve read six or seven of the ten he’s written. The Spies of Warsaw is one of the ones that is simply as good as its predecessors, not better. A French military attaché in Warsaw works with the Poles and Russians to learn more about Nazi war plans. The plot is complemented by a love story and complicated by a vendetta from a Nazi thug who takes personally Colonel Mercier’s interruption of his kidnapping of a German source. Not to give away the end because history does that, the French are convinced that the Germans can be thwarted if not deterred by the Maginot Line. Mercier discovers that there is no evidence in German armaments or maneuvers to suggest that the Germans are planning to contend with the Maginot Line. Instead their preparations seem aimed at something more shall we say Belgian. So Mercier’s information, which should blow the whistle on things, has the surprisingly opposite effect, convincing France’s war staff and politicians of their original position. Mercier’s information is a clever Nazi plot to mislead the French—no evidence becomes evidence. (Echoes of Iraq anyone?) Furst’s writing is wonderfully spare and precise, evocative without straining for effect. His dialogue is crisp and real. The storytelling intelligent. It’s a very good book.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a number of reasons why this mediocre spy book (I hesitate to call it a novel, as that implies something undeserved in the way of characterization, plot development, aesthetic sense, or relation to reality) over-irked me, but I’ll spare you all but the biggest: we have here a Warsaw of the late 1930s which, remarkably, is populated solely by war-hating-yet-honorable aristocrats and shabby-yet-dignified proles who all despise Hitler, harbor no anti-Semitism, and (even correcting for the magical ability of the French to all sound like political philosophers) speak in ways that bear little resemblance to how people talk in real life. I guess it’s only natural to want to spare your protagonists from the ugly contemporary prejudices, but if people had really been like that, methinks there would have been no need for a World War II. Really, all I ask from these kinds of books just a smidgen of the zeitgeist, but Mr Furst protects his darlings so thoroughly, they are unmoored.

[Left Coast Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tightly plotted and rife with what seem to be historically-accurate details. This is the second book by this author that I've read and I think Mr. Furst has carved out quite a nice niche for himself.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Furst's papers reside at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin," says Wikipedia. Snort! I've enjoyed a few Furst novels, but they hardly strike me as the work of someone whose papers ought to be in residence somewhere. Shouldn't you be dead for that to happen, anyway? "Furst lives in Sag Harbor, Long Island, but he considers himself a European by sensibility." Oh, mais bien sûr, naturellement. How could it be otherwise, pass the langoustines!

Our characters include a kind and elegant French spy working in 1937 Warsaw, some nasty Nazis with a bullwhip, some Russian Jews, some pretty ladies. Furst's writing is lean, and you have to pay attention: he won't repeat himself. The narrative unfolds gently and unremarkably. The body count is surprisingly low. The most exciting episode involves a German spying for the French, some chloroform, and a rolled up carpet.

[Martin Spellman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alan Furst is hailed on his books as 'widely recognised as a master of the historical spy novel' and by the New York Times as 'America's pre-eminent spy novelist'. The pity is that he is none of these things. The filters obviously omit Brit contenders like John Le Carre, Frederick Forsyth, Ian Fleming and one his novels are very comparable with: Eric Ambler. A look at lists of top US spy novelists reveals Tom Clancy, Martin Cruz Smith, Donald Hamilton (Matt Helm) and Edward S Aarons (Sam Duvell) while Furst is nowhere.
'Spies of Warsaw' is a weak romance without tension. Furst uses maps (Warsaw 1937, Paris 1939) and little details in his novels to show verisimilitude but you simply do not need to know the street the French Embassy was in in Warsaw before the war. Confidential discussions take place and secret names are revealed without a thought at cafe tables. No one worries about the enemy's ears. Melodrama is used to supply what tension there is outside the characters. Possible crisis moments are wasted. In the 'Black Front' section two Soviet GRU agents, Victor and Malka Rozen, are to be evacuated by aircraft. The only snag is a dairyman's cart that blocks the road, as they are not pursued by the Russians. Then he wastes a couple of pages where nothing happens but goodbyes being said. Even Colonel Bruner comes along from Paris on the plane to no purpose. The plane taxies away and is soon a 'black dot in the sky'.
Mercier has been warned by Polish Military Intelligence that the Nazis, led by August Voss of the SD, are after him and he needs to take care. Yet when he visits an arms factory he dismisses his driver, Marek. He is not even armed when three men approach to give him a beating when he comes out. He is saved by Marek who shoots the Nazi's driver and comes to his aid. "Who were they?" Marek said. "No idea, Mercier said. "They spoke German." "Then why...?" Mercier couldn't answer. He again pointlessly denies knowledge when they examine the dead Nazi driver. Then he goes home and takes his love interest out to a film. It is a wonder they didn't have a night in with slippers and pipe by the fire. So even where there should be danger and conflict everything is soon smoothed away.

[Branwen Sedai *of the Brown Ajah* · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warsaw, 1938. Colonel Jean-Francios Mercier is a celebrated war hero of the 1914 war. He is also the military representative from the French embassy who trades in secrets and information from Germans, Russians, and anyone else who can be trusted. But no one is to be trusted, not really. In this time of uncertain fear and with war looming in the distance, Mercier must rely on his courage and intelligence to keep his head above water and survive.

This...is not normally the type of book that I enjoy. It's not even a time period that I overly enjoy reading about. Although of course after this I will say my interest has been piqued! I'm not too familiar with 'spy' novels or novels involving espionage and politics and whatnot. But this book made me fall in love. It made me fall in love with the characters, with the beauty of France and Poland, despite the brevity of war not far on the horizon. It made me fall in love with Alan Furst's writing, which was deeply evocative and achingly beautiful. There is just....something about this novel that really struck a chord in me. I was pleasantly surprised how much I absolutely loved it.

Even if you are not a fan of this genre or time period I would strongly recommend reading this novel, because it is one of the best books I have read so far this year!

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Spies of Warsaw is an encapsulation of the subtle and dark arts of espionage in interwar Europe. An art, which, through the passage of centuries, had been enhanced with the accoutrements of science.

The story begins in Poland in late 1937. A man who looks to be a modest businessman arrives in Warsaw, briefcase in hand. He books a room at the Hotel Europejski for an assignation with his mistress, a Polish countess. All is not as it seems. The businessman is Edvard Uhl, an engineer and specialist in tank design, who lives just across the border in Breslau. There is more to Herr Uhl than meets the eye. For some time, he had had some "dealings" with the French military attache. Both men had worked well together for some time. But now the attache has been recalled. His replacement is Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, born of the lesser nobility in the heart of the French countryside, a graduate of Saint Cyr (the French equivalent of West Point), where one of his classmates was a fellow officer by the name of Charles de Gaulle. Mercier is a veteran of the First World War and of the Russo-Polish War of 1920-21 (where he again renewed his acquaintance with de Gaulle).

Being an attache begins as a bit of a bewildering experience for Mercier le veuf. Besides making the acquaintance of his Polish counterparts, and ingratiating himself with the diplomatic community in Warsaw through endless rounds of parties graced with scintillating conversations, bubbly champagne, and fine food, Mercier has to learn --- quickly --- the skills deemed essential for being a successful spy. In the process, he embarks upon a journey with many twists and turns. A journey in which one step too far could be his last. The stakes are high. The margins --- infinite, given the increasingly fractious relations among Poland, Germany, and France.

Furst shows in this book why he is generally acknowledged as the master of the historical espionage novel. Espionage brings out both the best and most base aspects of people. In reading " The Spies of Warsaw", brace yourself for a thrilling and bumpy ride.

[Laura JC · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this only because it sounded good and was set in Warsaw, where I had just visited. I didn't think it was great. I never felt much about the characters, and nothing much happened. The few scenes that could have been made exciting were not.

[Scott Head · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read all the Night Soldiers books in order, up to The Spies of Warsaw. I love Furst, and I love his style. Ever since the first book in the series, which was and still is my favorite, I have tracked with interest the recurring places, the appearances of cross-over characters, and the rich scene-crafting.

But as one reviewer has noted, Furst tends to write the same story, but in a different context, each time. I can sympathize with such an estimate, I see it more clearly now too. But that isn't a bad thing. But by book ten of the Night Soldiers series, and after the last installment being the least enjoyable for me, the realization does occur to me that I know how its going to play out. Furst admits this with no apologies in various interviews, and is not shy to say these are yarns to be read and enjoyed for what they are. They are very, very well written novels. I do seem to consider Dark Voyage a bit of a different flavor than the rest, if you are looking for one that seems slightly different in form. And Night Soldiers, the original, is likewise a more beefy and sweeping saga than all the others, perhaps because it was the first. The author said he thought (wrongly) that a longer book was a better book back then. And Night Soldiers, well, that one was just a fantastic piece of descriptive writing with some exceptionally powerful twists and turns.

I did enjoy this installment, and it was full of gripping drama and the typically dense web of affiliations and connections between people and places that marks a Furst novel. I felt a real empathy and connection to the protagonist, Mercier, a French military attache working in Warsaw. As a near-burned out decorated war hero turned military attaché to the French embassy in Poland, his resignation letter was kept in the desk drawer for that one day where it all was too much. But when he realized the plight of the people of Europe, who he often stopped to ponder their fate as the rumbles of war were growing, Mercier decided he would act, and do what he could to undermine the Nazi regime. Centered mostly on the discovery of how Germany planned to invade France - which everyone knew would be through the Ardennes forest and not across the vaunted Maginot line - the search for clues that would prove German intentions to the stubborn French military and political leaders was an uphill, and losing battle. This drive to find the German invasion plan, or at least decisive evidence that would leave no doubt - propelled Mercier into the world of the clandestine, the forests of Germany, the seedy hotels of Europe's occupied zones, and to dark factories where shady characters lurked. Characters who were looking for him.

Each Furst book has one or two main love interests, and usually they are the typically attractive 30-something go-getters who factor into the story in a key manner. I felt a more positive connection to his love interest, Anna, than I usually feel for Furst's women. But what I enjoy is that even minor characters like maids and hotel matrons with the late rent check on their mind have some depth to them. The story had its share of seedy a and dangerous villains, and several tense situations that kept me reading.

I noticed people and events in this novel that I had encountered in previous stories, and I like that. This is one of the delightful devices that Furst uses to keep us involved. When I read a reference to a meeting or person who is not outright mentioned, but we know that fellow is the guy from Foreign Correspondent or The World at Night, I feel like an insider, a real fan. I want to then go back and read al the books to log all the characters and connect all the lines. I think Mr. Furst mentioned in an interview that there was a guy who had done just that. I think people like to feel like they are part of the Night Soldiers world, its one reason the series succeeds even through some of the less-popular titles. The stories do not seem cheap because of cross-over characters, or a "Furst universe", like so many series do.

This tale was compelling, the characters were believably dense without resorting to bare prose, the historical background insightful, informative and accurate, and Furst's writing as masterful as ever.
As always, keep a running record of characters and identify the various bureaus, ministries and departments with whom people are associated; note aliases and any instances of a nom de guerre. Especially if you read smaller sections at a time and stretch the book out over weeks of reading. This will also come in handy when you recognize a character from a previous Furst book, you will have some background information. I also find myself frequently looking up place names and locations on Google Earth, and traveling with the story via street view. Loads of fun.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting sort of spy novel in that it’s not exactly one story but rather the life of a French Military Attaché in Poland just before the German invasion, and it’s made of overlapping events. In a sense, it resembles LeCarré’s “The Secret Pilgrim” although that was composed of a class conducted by an agent at a spy school, some events featuring George Smiley; however, this is just the life of a man with several irons in the fire at once, some personal and others professional.

Colonel Jean-François Mercier is a decorated veteran of the First World War and the new military attaché in the French Embassy in Warsaw. As such, he is drawn into all the intrigues between different countries, some of which involve abduction and betrayal. Like any job, this involves several projects in different stages of development while being part of diplomatic society, where information is to be extracted while not giving away your own secrets. This intrigue and game-playing eventually extends to his relationships with women, one the wife of an acquaintance, one a woman at loose ends who makes a living working for the Embassy, and the other a Parisian woman, a lawyer with the League of Nations of Polish background. From a reader’s point-of-view, it’s great fun to watch it all unfold, both in his professional and personal life. The backdrop for all this is the war that they all know is inevitable but hope won’t come after just having ended another. The questions are whether France will support Poland if/when Hitler invades and whether (or where) Hitler will invade France. Mercier is caught between what he believes will happen, based on information he obtains, and having to convince his ultimate boss, Marshall Pétain and the Vichy government. Then there are Stalin and the Russians…

They say that Alan Furst is one of the best writers of spy novels set in the World War II era and after reading this one, I can say that I agree. Someone else I know on Good Reads is a big fan and I can see why. I think that it must be hard to write a historical spy novel because we all know what happened so planting a story without crossing with known facts is walking a tight wire, something that Furst does well here. With luck, I’ll come across more of his work but this was a satisfying start.

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Well, he thought, one did what one had to do, so life went. No, one did what one had to do in order to do what one wanted to do - so life really went.”
― Alan Furst, The Spies of Warsaw



A robust, tight and occasionally frisky Furst novel. I am quickly approaching the end of my Furst 'Soldiers of the Night' jag and thus far it has been a fascinating experience. His character-driven novels could easily be bound into one gigantic prewar novel. They all swirl and fugue with similar themes, many of the same characters, and the same dark ambiance. He is detail oriented, historically accurate, writes well AND is one of the best atmosphere writers around. He leaves you feeling the grit, the cold, and the tongue of the WWII night. He is a first-class genre writer that while not quite in the le Carré aristocracy, is certainly in the spy-Master ruling class.

'Spies of Warsaw' is centered around a French military attaché in Warsaw who is struggling with a growing sense of urgency about the inevitable crash of Nazi Germany tanks into France and Poland, while also dealing with a satchel filled with unreliable allies, reluctant spies and self-serving superiors.

For reference, I've included below the 14 books of the Night Soldiers series along with my star rating:

1. Night Soldiers (1988) - 4 stars
2. Dark Star (1991) - 5 stars
3. The Polish Officer (1995) - 4 stars
4. The World at Night (1996) - 3 stars
5. Red Gold (1999) - 3 stars
6. Kingdom of Shadows (2000) - 3 stars
7. Blood of Victory (2003) - 4 stars
8. Dark Voyage (2004) - 4 stars
9. The Foreign Correspondent (2006) - 3 stars
10. The Spies of Warsaw (2008) - 4 stars
11. Spies of the Balkans (2010) - 3 stars
12. Mission to Paris (2012) - 3 stars
13. Midnight in Europe (2013) - 3 stars
14. A Hero of France (2016) - 3 stars

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn't a bad book, but I ultimately found it very frustrating. The main character is a French diplomat and spy working in Warsaw in 1938. He knows very well that the Germans will invade soon and that Poland will stand alone against them. But he spends most of his time (and the book) going to cocktail parties and trying to get a girlfriend. This is probably an accurate representation of how people do deal with impending doom, but still, I couldn't help but wish he seemed a little more concerned about the tank brigades rolling in his direction.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic tale of spying, intrigue and romance, based on the novels of Alan Furst.
A German engineer arrives in Warsaw. Tonight he will be with his Polish mistress, tomorrow at a workers' bar in the city's factory district to meet with Colonel Mercier in a backstreet cafe. Information is exchanged for money.
Mercier loathes the niceties of ambassadorial lunches, cocktail parties and banquets of a world not yet at war, but one in which the drums of war can be heard ever more insistently in the background. However, they take on an altogether more interesting dimension when he meets the enigmatic and beautiful Anna Skarbek.
While secretly observing panzer exercises in the Black Forest, Mercier sees a simple trick performed with a length of pipe strapped across a car and draws his own conclusions about exactly what it is the Germans are planning.
When the Nazis find out what he's been doing, his own life becomes their target.

Night Soldiers series:
3* Red Gold (Night Soldiers, #5)
4* The Spies of Warsaw (Night Soldiers, #10)
TR Night Soldiers (Night Soldiers, #1)
TR Dark Star (Night Soldiers, #2)
TR The Polish Officer (Night Soldiers, #3)
TR The World at Night (Night Soldiers, #4)
TR Kingdom of Shadows (Night Soldiers, #6)
TR Blood of Victory (Night Soldiers, #7)
TR Dark Voyage (Night Soldiers, #8)
TR The Foreign Correspondent (Night Soldiers, #9)
TR Spies of the Balkans (Night Soldiers, #11)
TR Mission to Paris (Night Soldiers, #12)
TR Midnight in Europe (Night Soldiers, #13)

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

We find ourselves in 1937 Warsaw. At the heart of this story is Jean-Francois Mercier, a very honorable soldier in what he considers a very dishonorable position -- the military attaché at the French Embassy.
Unhappily, he is the spymaster whose main duty is to gather information about Nazi military plans towards France as he unwillingly cultivates his sources and reluctantly moves within the embassy's social circles. As his interactions begin to bear fruit, Jean-Francois begins to understand that he must try to sound the alarm and bring his superiors to put aside their delusions. His prescience of war comes through several times as his story unfolds.

The best part of this book for me is the picture of pre-war Warsaw as a cosmopolitan city -- which is the idea I grew up with -- but which is so rarely seen in Western literature. It is also important to remember that both France and Germany were not monolithic societies. France had great internal divisions about its future relationship with Germany and greatly underestimated Nazi intentions and dismissed its military strength. Germany also had pockets of resistance from different sides throughout the regime's reign.

** A couple of pet peeves ...
It is difficult for a non-Polish-speaking writer to get grammar correct but titles should be pretty simple; plus, Anna would have been addressed by her professional title within her wider social circle.
And now I am wondering where the substory ending in the BBC movie came from **

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Furst excels at weaving the humdrum of everyday life through a larger geopolitical story spanning a number of countries. And so it is with The Spies of Warsaw, which traces the convoluted life of Jean-Francois Mercier in the lead up to the Second World War, and his various dalliances and missions. The plotting is slow and ponderous at times, and occasionally a little clunky, but Furst works to draw the reader in and tug them along, and as with previous books the narrative is highly informative, detailing the place, social relations and politics of the era. The characterisation is, for the most part, excellent, though some of the Nazi thugs and French military personnel drift toward caricature at times. The story itself was quite muted and although the tension should have been ratcheted up at certain points, as Mercier undertook dangerous missions, the narrative really lacked an edge. The biggest let down, however, was the ending: the book very nearly sailing through the air as I read the last paragraph. In fact, it would have been a stronger end if that paragraph had been omitted. Overall, an enjoyable enough read, but not one of his best.

[Jeffrey Zeldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly absorbing; vividly real and exciting; morally complex, yet painless. Ranks with KINGDOM OF SHADOWS as an all-time best. Either will serve if you are new to Furst.

This is _transparent_ storytelling: you aren't aware of words on the page, or the author's cleverness, or any of that postmodern meta bullshit. The story takes hold of you on the first page, and doesn't let go until you finish (wishing it would never end).

Furst is a great novelist, a serious novelist (like Graham Greene); his themes are the big themes of all great literature. It's just that he is also incredibly entertaining. That sounds like a good thing -- and for readers, it is. But the critical establishment tends not to reward popular, readable fiction.

An exciting, quickly absorbed novel that provides an uncanny sense of living in another time: prewar Poland, 1937. As in all Furst, the quickly-sketched characters are memorable and vividly real, the drama unfolds quickly and unpredictably, and the reading experience is both tense and exhilarating. Highly recommended.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In the dying light of an autumn day in 1937, a certain Herr Edvrd Uhl, a secret agent, descended from a first-class railway carriage in the city of Warsaw." With this opening sentence, Furst drops you into a world of glamour and intrigue, with the spectre of Nazism and Hitler's fanatic followers looming as dark and cold as a winter in Poland. I am now thoroughly hooked on Furst and his talents as a writer of historical espionage. His details are pitch perfect, his research laudable. He takes his time to develop plot and characters, rather than showing the cloak and dagger prowess of espionage agencies and their operatives. His spies struggle with their German, have bum knees and crave jam-filled doughnut holes. There is enough thrill and glamour to make this a perfect "curl up on the sofa" read, but full of credibility by an author who has respect for historical accuracy and those lives these events changed, shattered and elevated.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is book №10 in the "Night Soldiers" series. This time it is set in Warsaw before the start of WWII. The main character is Colonel Jean- Francois Mercier. a highly decorated soldier from WWI. He is also the military attaché at the French Embassy there. As part of his duties he has to attend various functions, and often gathers seemingly innocuous grains of information. The whole of Europe is expecting war to descend, but no-one knows when or where. Can these grains of information be gathered together to form a clearer picture, and what could they mean to either France or Poland?
Once again the characters are carefully crafted, and even in the shadowy world of espionage and spies, they are portrayed as all too human. The brooding atmosphere is conveyed well, with an almost noir feel to the book. It does tend to skip about as it follows various different characters, and makes for a slightly disjointed read. However, there is plenty going on to maintain the reader's interest.

[Renata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the story and the time period of 1937. He captures the anxiety and uncertainty of the espionage community and the governments of Europe at the time. Liked the characters and could not wait to read another of his books. Followed this one up with Night soldiers which I read on my nook. It was a much longer and and involved story in which he portrays the chaos of the European communities. My heart bled for the young soldiers who were trying to survive the changing political currents sweeping them along like so much storm debris. Night soldiers physically and emotionally exhausted me as it moved from one country to the next. I know I will read of Furst's books - but I am aiming for a shorter, more single story one like Spies of Warsaw.

[Karin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's 1937 when Colonel Colonel Jean-François Mercier, who served in WW I, a French attaché in Warsaw, when his job draws into the world of espionage as the Nazi's are gaining more and more power in Germany. This is most definitely a book centering on espionage in pre-WW II Europe, but there are some fabulous interpersonal relationships and background, well certainly they are so on the audiobook which is very well done, indeed.

These books are 3 stars for me because the plot isn't brilliant, I don't need the foul language and a few other things, but I do like the fact that the violence, while not fun, isn't as overdrawn and lengthy as it is in some novels. It makes the necessary points without turning into a gore-fest, and it doesn't dominate the book.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 10th book in Furst's series set in various European countries before and during WWII. While all the books are stand-alone reads, the running theme is espionage. In this novel, a French diplomat / spy collects and handles informers in pre-war Warsaw. Furst excels at creating atmosphere and characters but falls short on moving the narrative along in an interesting way. Still, I overall enjoyed this story about all the intrigues, ruses, and relationships that make up the spy game.

[Brenda Hawley · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can one say of Alan Furst? His deceptively simple writing style is so multi-layered and full of hdden emotion, so fascinating to watch his plots develop but even more so his characters who are caught up in problems of the pre and World War II era in which they are able to merely watch the action.Furst is one of the best modern writiers in my opinion.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting-- about the lives of diplomat/spies in pre world war II Europe. It did drag in some spots, though.

[Bruce MacBain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Furst is a master at recreating the menacing atmosphere of Central Europe on the brink of World War II. And the plot's good too.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is 1937. French military attaché Colonel Mercier is working out of the French Embassy in Warsaw.
He has lost one of his sort-of agents and is in trouble with his higher-ups.
Mercier gets involved in a love affair.
Nothing much happens in this novel. I liked the ending best, but it was pretty boring before getting there.
And I have to say Furst’s use of the comma is excessive and annoying.
This is, after all, “America’s preeminent spy novelist”. What am I missing???

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Furst is one of the best writers of spy novels going. I wouldn’t rank this one among his best, but it was very good. Like all of Furst’s books, it derives poignancy from the hindsight that, despite the best efforts of the protagonist, interwar Europe was doomed.

The protagonist, Colonel Mercier (the French military attachė in Poland) is running a spy within the German armaments industry, hoping to learn what Germany’s war plans are in regard to France. Everything is based on partial information and guesses, but it’s obvious that the Germans are very keen on tanks. Mercier tries to alert his superiors to the danger posed by the German Panzer forces, but the French general staff is determinedly expecting a reprise of the last war.

Like most of Furst’s books, there are plenty of shady characters in trenchcoats, a love affair, world weary veterans of the trenches, and Nazi spies. (Any fan of Indiana Jones movies will tell you that Nazis make the best villains.) The historian in me appreciates the way Furst combines almost cinematic atmospherics with a decent level of historical accuracy. Unlike the jarring notes in a lot of historical fiction, his books usually get things right.