Under Occupation

Under Occupation

Alan Furst

Mystery & Thrillers / Historical Fiction

From "America's preeminent spy novelist" (The New York Times) comes a fast-paced, mesmerizing thriller of the French resistance fighters working secretly and bravely to defeat Hitler. Occupied Paris, 1942. Just before he dies, a man being chased by the Gestapo hands off a strange-looking document to the unsuspecting novelist Paul Ricard. It looks like a blueprint of a part for a military weapon, one that might have important information for the Allied forces. Ricard realizes he must try to get it into the hands of members of the resistance network. As Ricard finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into anti-Nazi efforts, and into increasingly dangerous espionage assignments, he travels to Germany and along the escape routes of underground resistance safe houses, to spy on Nazi maneuvers. When he meets the mysterious and beautiful Leila, a professional spy, they begin to work together to get crucial information out of France and into the hands...
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The Polish Officer

The Polish Officer

Alan Furst

Mystery & Thrillers / Historical Fiction

September 1939. As Warsaw falls to Hitler's Wehrmacht, Captain Alexander de Milja is recruited by the intelligence service of the Polish underground. His mission: to transport the national gold reserve to safety, hidden on a refugee train to Bucharest. Then, in the back alleys and black-market bistros of Paris, in the tenements of Warsaw, with partizan guerrillas in the frozen forests of the Ukraine, and at Calais Harbor during an attack by British bombers, de Milja fights in the war of the shadows in a world without rules, a world of danger, treachery, and betrayal. Alan Furst, an acknowledged master of the European espionage thriller, has produced a stunning achievement in The Polish Officer: dark, evocative, authentic, and taut with suspense.
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Blood of Victory

Blood of Victory

Alan Furst

Mystery & Thrillers / Historical Fiction

“In 1939, as the armies of Europe mobilized for war, the British secret services undertook operations to impede the exportation of Roumanian oil to Germany. They failed.“Then, in the autumn of 1940, they tried again.”So begins Blood of Victory, a novel rich with suspense, historical insight, and the powerful narrative immediacy we have come to expect from bestselling author Alan Furst. The book takes its title from a speech given by a French senator at a conference on petroleum in 1918: “Oil,” he said, “the blood of the earth, has become, in time of war, the blood of victory.”November 1940. The Russian writer I. A. Serebin arrives in Istanbul by Black Sea freighter. Although he travels on behalf of an émigré organization based in Paris, he is in flight from a dying and corrupt Europe—specifically, from Nazi-occupied France. Serebin finds himself facing his fifth war, but this time he is an exile, a man without a country, and there is no army to join. Still, in the words of Leon Trotsky, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” Serebin is recruited for an operation run by Count Janos Polanyi, a Hungarian master spy now working for the British secret services. The battle to cut Germany’s oil supply rages through the spy haunts of the Balkans; from the Athenée Palace in Bucharest to a whorehouse in Izmir; from an elegant yacht club in Istanbul to the river docks of Belgrade; from a skating pond in St. Moritz to the fogbound banks of the Danube; in sleazy nightclubs and safe houses and nameless hotels; amid the street fighting of a fascist civil war.Blood of Victory is classic Alan Furst, combining remarkable authenticity and atmosphere with the complexity and excitement of an outstanding spy thriller. As Walter Shapiro of Time magazine wrote, “Nothing can be like watching Casablanca for the first time, but Furst comes closer than anyone has in years.”From the Hardcover edition.
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Dark Voyage

Dark Voyage

Alan Furst

Mystery & Thrillers / Historical Fiction

“In the first nineteen months of European war, from September 1939 to March of 1941, the island nation of Britain and her allies lost, to U-boat, air, and sea attack, to mines and maritime disaster, one thousand five hundred and ninety-six merchant vessels. It was the job of the Intelligence Division of the Royal Navy to stop it, and so, on the last day of April 1941 . . .”May 1941. At four in the morning, a rust-streaked tramp freighter steams up the Tagus River to dock at the port of Lisbon. She is the Santa Rosa, she flies the flag of neutral Spain and is in Lisbon to load cork oak, tinned sardines, and drums of cooking oil bound for the Baltic port of Malmö.But she is not the Santa Rosa. She is the Noordendam, a Dutch freighter. Under the command of Captain Eric DeHaan, she sails for the Intelligence Division of the British Royal Navy, and she will load detection equipment for a clandestine operation on the Swedish coast–a secret mission, a dark voyage.A desperate voyage. One more battle in the spy wars that rage through the back alleys of the ports, from elegant hotels to abandoned piers, in lonely desert outposts, and in the souks and cafés of North Africa. A battle for survival, as the merchant ships die at sea and Britain–the last opposition to Nazi German–slowly begins to starve.A voyage of flight, a voyage of fugitives–for every soul aboard the Noordendam. The Polish engineer, the Greek stowaway, the Jewish medical officer, the British spy, the Spaniards who fought Franco, the Germans who fought Hitler, the Dutch crew itself. There is no place for them in occupied France; they cannot go home.From Alan Furst–whom The New York Times calls America’s preeminent spy novelist–here is an epic tale of war and espionage, of spies and fugitives, of love in secret hotel rooms, of courage in the face of impossible odds. Dark Voyage is taut with suspense and pounding with battle scenes; it is authentic, powerful, and brilliant.
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Alan Furst's Classic Spy Novels

Alan Furst's Classic Spy Novels

Alan Furst

Mystery & Thrillers / Historical Fiction

From Alan Furst, often compared to John le Carré, Graham Greene, and Eric Ambler, and praised as the best spy novelist ever, a trio of his classic worksFurst, known for panoramic vision, deep authenticity, and a magnificent eye for historical detail, always sets his novels in the twilight world of Europe in the 1930s and first years of World War II, when the British, Russian, German, and many other spy services fought it out in the alleys and grand hotels of Paris, Berlin, and other cities on the Continent. The three classic spy novels in this 'read all night' eBook bundle will transport you to the dark conflict between fascists, communists, and the people who fought back against them.
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Night Soldiers

Night Soldiers

Alan Furst

Mystery & Thrillers / Historical Fiction

In Bulgaria in 1934, nineteen-year-old Khristo Stoianev sees his brother kicked to death by a gang of strutting thugs. Realizing the growing menace of fascism, he takes a risk on the promise of communism and flees to Moscow, where he is trained as an agent of the NKVD, precursor of the KGB. His first mission is to Catalonia, where he is soon caught up in the bloody horrors of the Spanish Civil War. Then he learns that he is to become the victim of one of Stalin's purges and is forced to flee once again, this time to Paris. He is a hunted man and before his silent war is over, every rule will be broken...and all loyalties discarded. "NIGHT SOLDIERS has everything the best thrillers offer - excitement, intrigue, romance - plus grown-up writing, characters that matter, and a crisp, carefully researched portrait of the period in which our own postwar world was shaped." (USA Today)
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Kingdom of Shadows

Kingdom of Shadows

Alan Furst

Mystery & Thrillers / Historical Fiction

1. How does Nicholas Morath's experience as a cavalry officer in World War I affect his behavior in this book? 2. During many of Morath's assignments, he acts with very limited knowledge--he knows what he is to do, but not why, or who is involved. His uncle, a diplomat at the Hungarian legation, does not tell him the full story. Why? Is his uncle morally right to do this? Is he right in any sense? How is this used as a plot device? 3. The first verse of the Hungarian national anthem, quotes in the epigraph of Kingdom of Shadows , speaks of a people 'torn by misfortune,' a nation that has 'already paid for its sins.' How is the tone of this national anthem different from that of other patriotic songs? What can you infer about the history of Hungary from its national anthem? 4. Critics praise Furst's ability to re-create the atmosphere of World War II-era Europe with great accuracy. What elements of description make the setting come alive? How can you account for the fact that the settings seem authentic even though you probably have no first-hand knowledge of the times and places he writes about? 5. Furst's novels have been described as 'historical novels' and as 'spy novels'. He call them 'historical spy novels.' Some critics have insisted they are, simply, novels. How does his work compare with other spy novels you've read? What does he do that is the same? Different? If you owned a bookstore, in what section would you display his books? 6. Furst is often praised for his minor characters, which have been described as 'sketched out in a few strokes.' Do you have a favorite in this book? Characters in Furst's books often take part in the action for a few pages and then disappear. What do you think becomes of them? And, if you know, how do you know? What in the book is guiding you toward that opinion? 7. At the end of an Alan Furst novel, the hero is always still alive. What becomes of Furst's heroes? Will they survive the war? Does Furst know what becomes of them? Would it be better if they were somewhere safe and sound, to live out the end of the war in comfort? If not, why not? 8. Love affairs are always prominent in Furst's novels, and 'love in a time of war' is a recurring theme. Do you think these affairs might last, and lead to marriage and domesticity? 9. How do the notions of good and evil work in Kingdom of Shadows ? Would you prefer a confrontation between villian and hero at the end of the book? Do you like Furst's use of realism in the novel?
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Spies of the Balkans: A Novel

Spies of the Balkans: A Novel

Alan Furst

Mystery & Thrillers / Historical Fiction

SUMMARY: Greece, 1940. Not sunny vacation Greece: northern Greece, Macedonian Greece, Balkan Greece—the city of Salonika. In that ancient port, with its wharves and warehouses, dark lanes and Turkish mansions, brothels and tavernas, a tense political drama is being played out. On the northern border, the Greek army has blocked Mussolini’s invasion, pushing his divisions back to Albania—the first defeat suffered by the Nazis, who have conquered most of Europe. But Adolf Hitler cannot tolerate such freedom; the invasion is coming, it’s only a matter of time, and the people of Salonika can only watch and wait.At the center of this drama is Costa Zannis, a senior police official, head of an office that handles special “political” cases. As war approaches, the spies begin to circle, from the Turkish legation to the German secret service. There’s a British travel writer, a Bulgarian undertaker, and more. Costa Zannis must deal with them all. And he is soon in the game, securing an escape route—from Berlin to Salonika, and then to a tenuous safety in Turkey, a route protected by German lawyers, Balkan detectives, and Hungarian gangsters. And hunted by the Gestapo.Meanwhile, as war threatens, the erotic life of the city grows passionate. For Zannis, that means a British expatriate who owns the local ballet academy, a woman from the dark side of Salonika society, and the wife of a local shipping magnate. Declared “an incomparable expert at his game” by The New York Times, Alan Furst outdoes even his own finest novels in this thrilling new book. With extraordinary authenticity, a superb cast of characters, and heart-stopping tension as it moves from Salonika to Paris to Berlin and back, Spies of the Balkans is a stunning novel about a man who risks everything to right—in many small ways—the world’s evil.
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