A Hero of France

Starred review from April 25, 2016
A master of the historical spy novel, Furst scores again with his 14th suspense story (after Midnight in Europe). This excellent spy thriller is set in Paris, March to August 1941, with the French Resistance movement covertly opposing the German occupation of the City of Light, early in World War II. Mathieu runs a Resistance cell that helps downed British airmen escape to Spain, always operating under the threat of exposure, betrayal, and arrest. Mathieu and the men and women of his cell are watchful and careful with their trust, for the Vichy police and the German Gestapo are sneaky, efficient, and brutal. The cell is small and well-organized, aided by an ethnology professor, a shady nightclub owner, a regal society matron, a Jewish schoolteacher, a female aristocrat, and a teenage girl. Their clandestine operations are very successful, attracting the unwelcome attention of a mysterious British spy, “a citizen of the shadows,” a French communist agent, a blackmailing underworld thug, and the most dangerous adversary of all, a German police inspector, Otto Broehm, sent specifically to Paris to destroy Mathieu’s cell. The inspector is a thorough planner, creating a clever, careful scheme to penetrate Mathieu’s cell. Mathieu must navigate or neutralize all these threats, resulting in a tense, well-crafted tale of courage, sacrifice, and wartime espionage. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM.

April 1, 2016
A Resistance leader in Nazi-occupied France attempts to keep his lines of escape open in this lyrical spy novel. This is Furst's (Midnight in Europe, 2014, etc.) 14th novel about espionage in World War II Europe, and his mastery of both the era and his craft is so complete that the book proceeds with a nonchalant ease. The anecdotal plot follows the Resistance leader Mathieu from early spring through late summer 1941, with a brief coda set in '44. It's a significant period in the war: Britain is stepping up its bombing raids; routes of escape are narrowing; Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union is about to bring French Communists into the Resistance. Mathieu goes about the business of securing funds, managing message drops, hiding downed British and Polish pilots, and finding ways to smuggle them back to England so they can continue fighting. All of that is engrossing and told in Furst's compressed poetic style. But the romantic heart of the book lies in the way it extols what, under the Occupation, remains of the sensual pleasures of life, the pleasures that are presented to us as the very opposite of what the Nazis stand for. For Mathieu, that's the love affair he's enjoying with a neighbor, the dog at his residential hotel who has adopted him, the occasional bit of meat or cheese he can get on the black market. This daydream of life under the Occupation is something rare: a suspense novel that offers the pleasures of relaxation.

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Starred review from May 1, 2016
Furst has typically set his acclaimed espionage novels in the years just prior to WWII. This time, though, he moves the clock forward, to the war itself, as he did in his masterful The World at Night (1996). It's March 1941, and the French Resistance is being born in the efforts of an intrepid group of Parisians dedicated to rescuing downed British fliers. Mathieu is the leader of a cell having great success at saving the fliersso much so that his efforts have not gone unnoticed by both the British, who want to turn the incipient movement into a strike force capable of sabotage, and by the Germans, who want to squelch it before it spreads. Mathieu fears the British incursion but realizes he is trapped; as a colleague notes, You own a business, which has prospered, now someone wants to buy it. Way of the world. With the Nazis closing in, Mathieu accepts British help in a more aggressive plan that threatens to expose his operation. Furst builds suspense superbly, as always, but he also takes time to flesh out Mathieu's rich supporting cast and to do what he does best of all: portray the fabric of Parisian life, especially the city's defining characteristic, its cafesonce where love affairs beganandended, now where resistance contacts are made and nurtured. Ah, but the love affairs continue, as with Mathieu and his neighbor Joelle, and nobody does passion behind blackout curtains better than Furst. This deliriously atmospheric novel reads with the sharp clarity of a poem, or perhaps a Piaf song, romantic and deeply melancholic but soaked in danger.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Furst's readers remain ravenous for another return trip to wartime Paris, and they won't need much prompting to book passage for this one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2016

It is 1941, and Paris is occupied by the Nazis. The Allied forces are engaged in nightly bombing raids over Germany and sometimes are required to land in France when their aircraft can't make it back over the English Channel. Enter Mathieu and his small Resistance cell; their job is to find the downed airmen and help them escape back to England. Each success brings the group closer to possible discovery by the Germans, and when Mathieu teams up with the British, the perilous new missions further endanger his network, especially when an unfamiliar threat arises that may destroy them all. VERDICT Furst (Mission to Paris) is recognized among the greatest contemporary spy novelists, and his newest does not disappoint. While lacking the tight, cohesive plotting of his strongest works, this title retains the trademarks that bring fans back: realistic characters, meticulous historical knowledge, and superb storytelling. [See Prepub Alert, 12/14/15.]--Laura Hiatt, Fort Collins, CO

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2016

Again blending espionage-wrought suspense with a keen sense of history, Furst returns to occupied Paris for the first time since 1999's Red Gold. He throws us into the midst of the French Resistance as he moves from the dimmed City of Light to Rouen and Orleans in a tale that's equal parts intrigue, gutsiness, and romance.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.