Plastic flowers never fade

42. The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Almost 4 stars. This is a slow building spy novel, where an honest, courageous, brave and loyal man finds himself trying to go the right thing, trying to fight the blindness of the people above him. This is about only seeing what you want to see even when faced with the truth.

Lt-Colonel Jean-François Mercier, highly decorated French officer has been relegated to Warsaw as military attaché, a dead end job as a transition from an active role in the military. He's new to the spy business but slowly makes his own way to discover that his superiors are in total denial of what is coming. This is 1938, Germany's power is rising, Austria is their, Poland is not far behind and the fall of France only 18 months away.


Furst offers intellectual spy novels, it does have action and suspense but the main appeal of Furst is the way his heroes (men and women) are smart, devious, brave and yes, intellectuals who fight the best way they know how, with their wits and brains.

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