Spies of the Balkans: A Novel by Alan Furst: October 2010

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Blood of Victory: A Novel

!1: Now is the time Blood of Victory: A Novel Order Today!

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Oct 06, 2010 23:21:05

In the autumn of 1940, Russian émigré journalist I. A. Serebin is recruited in Istanbul by an agent of the British secret services for a clandestine operation to stop German importation of Romanian oil—a last desperate attempt to block Hitler’s conquest of Europe. Serebin’s race against time begins in Bucharest and leads him to Paris, the Black Sea, Beirut, and, finally, Belgrade; his task is to attack the oil barges that fuel German tanks and airplanes. Blood of Victory is a novel with the heart-pounding suspense, extraordinary historical accuracy, and narrative immediacy we have come to expect from Alan Furst.

!1: Best Buy Blood of Victory suffers the disadvantage of following the masterpiece Kingdom of Shadows. While an extraordinary novel by normal standards, it has less attention to minor characters than most Furst novels, and, presumably in an effort to attract popular attention, the plot is the most procedural of his you'll find, even ending with a climactic action sequence!

Never before has Furst's admiration for Eric Ambler been more apparent, with many interesting parallels with A Coffin for Demitrios, not the least of which is the locales.You'll find the usual intertwining of characters and events with other Furst novels and terrific prose, but there isn't as much to savor here as usual. It's almost Furst-lite. There are a couple of plot points which are particularly fuzzy, but there is an interesting exploration into the motivations behind becoming an espionage agent that are more fully attended here than in other Furst novels. The reader is drawn through the difficult process of choosing to fight. Yes, you'll find the usual ambience that enshrouds Furst's characters, but their stage seems a bit bare, as if some of the attention to detail we've come to expect from Furst is missing. A very good novel, but just not his best. on Sale!