Europe in the late nineteen-thirties and early nineteen-forties is fertile territory for thriller writers, but newcomers need to be aware that Alan Furst has set the bar very high. Zoo Station, the first of a series set in Berlin, holds the attention but doesn't genuinely thrill. John Russell, the book's hero, recruited to spy for both sides in the impending war, is confronted by seemingly challenging obstacles only for conveniently neat solutions to appear. Had the Gestapo been that gullible the Allies would have been victorious much sooner.

The root problem is too simplistic plotting overwhelmed by too much period detail. No journey goes from A to B without every intermediate street being named. "Russell caught a 76 tram outside the Zoo for Grünewald, and watched the houses grow bigger as it worked its way past Halensee..." After fifty pages this becomes tedious. David Downing's attempt at authenticity is not helped by many inconsistencies with the language. On pages 146 and 147, for example, both the Führer and Neukölln appear variously with and without an umlaut. Elsewhere Görlitz has its umlaut but Goering is anglicised. Back in England Russell takes his son to a football match having had his enquiry about a three o'clock kick off confirmed; Highbury in 1939 had no floodlights to permit play on a late February afternoon.

Nit-picking perhaps but the plot is simply not engrossing enough to distract from the plastered-on period detail.