Marvelous Beth Fedyn sent me a get-well card and a book while I was in REHAB. The book was Alan Furst’s Mission to Paris, a book I already had waiting in my AMAZON cart. Beth probably remembered from our DAPA-EM days that I was a fan of Alan Furst’s spy novels. Furst has carved out a niche in spy fiction. He sets most of his books in Europe just before World War II. In Mission to Paris, a European actor and Hollywood film star Fredric Stahl is in Paris to make a movie for Paramount France. The Nazis plot “political warfare” against France by using bribery, intimidation, and corrupt newspapers to shape public opinion to their political ends. The Nazis decide to recruit Stahl as a tool in their propaganda campaign. Stahl resists and finds himself involved in a dangerous game of influencing the French in the months preceding the German invasion of their country. If you enjoy spy fiction with a strong historical flavor, I highly recommend Alan Furst’s work. Thanks Beth! GRADE: B+
Since Mr. Furst has written the same novel over and over again for the last 15 years, he should be pretty good at it by now.
His reliance on formula somewhat annoys me, but he is a superb stylist. I have no idea if it really was this way, but the atmospheric depiction of late 30’s and early 40’s Europe seems so real and accurate. I will get MISSION TO PARIS, and once the hero starts lighting up Gauloises, I’ll probably be hooked.
You’re right about Furst’s formula, Drongo. But it’s a formula that works: Nazis, violence, a good guy surrounded by menace, etc. What saves the books from sameness are the historical aspects. It’s best to read these Furst books spaced out…like one per year.
I should have also added that Mr. Furst, like a good house guest, knows when to say goodbye. Unlike a lot of writers, he doesn’t let things go on too long.
Good point, Drongo. MISSION TO PARIS is 250 pages long, short by contemporary thriller standards.
Might have to try this. Not familiar with Furst’s work, but like a good spy novel. Reading one now, SENTINEL, by Matthew Dunn, his second novel featuring MI5 operative Will Cochrane. If you can put any faith in bio sketches, Dunn was such an operative himself way back when. Whatever, I liked the firat and am enjoying the second.
I’ll have to give Matthew Dunn a look, Randy. Thanks for the heads-up!
A Phil favorite although he thinks he’s done about all he can do with the era and hasn’t read the last few.
I went to see my friend two days after knee replacement and when the therapist bent her knee, she broke down and cried. How long does that intense pain hold on?
Tell your friend with the knee replacement to take the pain pills, Patti. Too many people take the minimum dosage. It’s best to take the maximum dosage first, to stay ahead of the pain, then taper off in the weeks ahead. Pain management is tricky, but recovery depends on keeping the pain within tolerable levels.
The one thing I don’t like about Furst is his virtually disowning his early books about Roger Lewin – The Caribbean Account, Your Day in the Barrel, and The Paris Drop – which I liked.
I do have the trade paperbacks of Furst’s European books – still mostly unread – waiting for me to get around to them.
Furst was a bit tedious in those early paperbacks, Jeff. But, once he hit his stride with the pre-WWII milieu his career really took off.
Just what I didn’t need, Randy, a new author. I see my library has SENTINEL on order. I may try the earlier SPYCATCHER (which was apparently SPARTAN in Great Britain).
Glad you liked it, George! I haven’t gotten to it yet but … soon!
Great minds think alike, Beth. I had MISSION TO PARIS in my AMAZON cart ready to buy when your delightful gift arrived! Thanks again for such a generous gift!
I kind of liked Your Day in the Barrel and The Paris Drop, George, but that was a long time ago, when they first came out. I’ve never caught up to Furst since he started writing his “better” books. Keep meaning to, but so far I haven’t.
I browsed through MISSION TO PARIS at Barnes and Noble last night, and it looked interesting, but it’s hard to pull the trigger on buying a hardcover, even when it’s discounted, when I have so many books back home I haven’t read yet.
I know the feeling, Steve. Sometimes I can wait a few months and buy books at bargain rates. And I buy plenty of books on AMAZON that are used. And, there’s always the public library.