Red Gold

Night Soldiers #5

by Alan Furst

Set in the underworld of Paris in 1941. Reluctant spy Jean Casson returns to occupied Paris under a new identity. He is wanted by the Gestapo therefore must stay away from the civilised circles he knew as a film producer and learn to survive in the shadowy backstreets and cheap hotels of Pigalle. Yet as the war drags on, he finds himself drawn back into the dangerous world of resistance and sabotage.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Espionage, Thriller, Mystery, World War II, War

283 pages, Paperback

First published March 23, 1999

About the author

Alan Furst is widely recognized as the current master of the historical spy novel. Born in New York, he has lived for long periods in France, especially Paris. He now lives on Long Island.

Night Soldiers novels
* Night Soldiers (1988)
* Dark Star (1991)
* The Polish Officer (1995)
* The World at Night (1996)
* Red Gold (1999)
* Kingdom of Shadows (2000)
* Blood of Victory (2003)
* Dark Voyage (2004)
* The Foreign Correspondent (2006)
* The Spies of Warsaw (2008)
* Spies of the Balkans (2010)
* Mission to Paris (2012)
* Midnight in Europe (2013)
* Under Occupation (2019)

Stand-alone novels
* Your day in the barrel (1976)
* The Paris drop (1980)
* The Caribbean Account (1981)
* Shadow Trade (1983)

For more information, see Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Left Coast Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another better-than-average spy story from Alan Furst.

Furst is the master of the little telling detail that reminds you life was very, very different seventy years ago, when Europe was at war. Little things like cars having running boards, the US having 48 states, commercial airliners having propellers still; things like that.

Red Gold is set primarily in France, dealing with resistance to German rule. Another thing Furst describes well is that humans can be nasty little creatures; and the small day-to-day humiliations that keep accumulating upon the Jewish population. We learn about people who suddenly find (and abuse) power over others, using German rules to further their own greedy ends. You want to keep reading in hopes that these pricky little tyrants suffer for their sins.

An interesting question arises: If your soldiers simply cannot beat the enemy's soldiers, is there any way to win the war? As it turns out, there's lots of ways to render an enemy powerless other than shooting them. This book has fun with that idea, and I had fun reading it.

[Mal Warwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alan Furst homes in on the French Resistance in Red Gold, the fifth of the 13 novels in his “Night Soldiers” series that have been appearing regularly since 1988. His mastery of the moods and the political environment in Europe before and during the Second World War is unexcelled, and the flawed, believable characters he writes about cause him to be regularly compared to Graham Greene and Eric Ambler, who were regarded as the masters of spy fiction decades before him.

Red Gold features a former film producer named Jean Casson who finds himself forced to become involved in espionage and sabotage in France early in World War II. In telling the story, Furst spotlights the tension and distrust among the several factions involved in the Resistance, from the loyal army officers on the staff of the puppet Petain to the Gaullist forces headquartered in London and the well-organized Communist underground. Casson’s role as liaison among the various factions gives him a unique vantage point on the complex relationships among these contending groups, each of them positioning itself for what was shaping up as a civil war that would follow the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Furst’s novels have a formulaic element, in that every one features a reluctant hero — Casson fits that bill to a T — as well as a love story. However, there’s nothing formulaic about either the circumstances or the locales Furst chooses, shifting from Eastern Europe to Spain to France and Greece and back. Even minor characters leap off the page, fully formed. As a guide to the reality of life as it was experienced by Europeans during World War II, there’s no one better than Alan Furst.

If you’re looking for blockbuster spy fiction in the tradition of Ian Fleming, with superhero agents and larger-than-life master criminals, you won’t find Alan Furst’s work to be satisfying. However, if you crave realistic stories and credible characters based on thorough historical research, you’ll find it difficult to put down any of his novels.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of atmosphere and not so much of a plot, as several episodes. The protagonist Casson is likeable, at least, as is his brief Jewish paramour. Other characters flit in and out of the text like fog. Were the machine guns ever used? Furst is no Le Carré. I don't like his novels enough to purchase them, but if they turn up in local alleyways in good condition, I'll pick them up.

[Ken Mueller]

BOOK REVIEW: Alan Furst's RED GOLD & Louis-Ferdinand Celine
The latest novel I've read from historical spy writer (his appelate, not mine) Alan Furst started out slower than usual. RED GOLD is Furst's only sequel and picks up the story of film producer Jean Casson after he has jumped ship on way to London and freedom and swims back to Occupied France "for love, not patriotism" he later confides to a flic who has run him in for questioning. As usual Furst delineates the normal people who get drawn into the dangerous and often fatal resistance to Nazi-occupied Europe not out of misplaced idealism but an existential awareness of moral right. Indeed, his characters could be lifted from one of Sartre's novels of resistance. And as usual his book is full of historical accuracies. But it wasn't until he descibes a sign by the cash register with a photograph of a funeral and the legend LE CRÉDIT EST MORT and later mentions "the doctor who wrote under tin- name Celine had worked with the poor, and now shrieked against the Jews on the radio" that I got it. Of course Furst had read his Louis-Ferdinand Celine and the take on his novel Mort à crédit (Death on the Installment Plan). So the novel of a film producer is told in a cross between cinamatique and Celine without the famous three dots...elipses. Celine, the novel as delirium, a perfect vehicle for the nightmare world of Nazi/Vichey France with the Gestapo, SS, whores and black marketeers. Listen:
"10:30 in the evening in the rue Hennequin. Some restaurants lived secret lives,
others spread out into their streets. This was the second kind; a green-and-gold
façade, a line of handsome automobiles. A Horch, a Lancia Aprilia. In the back
seat of an open sedan, a redhead with a dead fox around her neck was smoking
like a movie star. On the street: German officers in shiny leather, boots and belts
and straps; their girlfriends, wearing plenty of rouge and eye shadow and black
stockings; and the strange tidal debris--the Count of Somewhere, Somebody the
art dealer--that flowed into conquered cities."
and
"Upstairs, a small office used for interrogation--two chairs, a desk scarred with
cigarette burns, tall windows opaque with dirt, a floor of narrow boards. The
station backed up to a schoolyard, it was recess, and Casson could hear the kids,
playing tag and yelling. The detective leaned on his elbows and read the dossier,
now and then shaking his head."
We get the movie version of setting and action:
"Casson never knew who shot first or why, but there were five or six reports from
the front of the truck. Somebody shouted, a car door opened, somebody screamed
"Maurice!" When Casson saw Jacquot's hand move, he grabbed for the Walther, pulled
it free of his belt, and forced the hammer back with his thumb. In front, a shot, then
another, from a different gun. Jacquot's hand came out from under his sweater, Casson
fired twice, then twice more. Jacquot grunted, there was a flash in the shadows.
Casson ducked away and ran around to the front of the truck. On the road by the
Citroën, somebody lay on top of a rifle."
Or with wry humour:
"No. It can't be. Of course, we both know people who'd like to ignore the whole
thing--just try to get along with them. But you know the saying, le plus on leur
baise le cul, le plus ils nous chient sur la tête." The more you kiss their ass, the
more they shit on your head..."

"War changes everything."
Weiss smiled. "It should, logically it should. But the world doesn't run on logic,
it runs on the seven deadly sins and the weather. Even so, we have to try to
do what we can."
"And it helps," Casson said, "to have mac

[Jean Hontz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Furst's series is about normal, everyday people stuck in the middle of Hell, when Europe goes to war. Some of them survive, some don't. Some find a way to work in the resistance, some try to escape, some help with that.

He presents the situation, not idealized with brave, beautiful people who are incredible spies, but instead as people who barely manage to find ways to survive, and do what little they can to help the cause of defeating Hitler. Fear is always present and one never knows who is knocking on your door, or who will be knocking it down.

[Benjamin baschinsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great atmosphere created by the author. I felt I was in wartime France. I have read most of Mr Furst>s novels, one of his best.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cover endorsements by William Boyd, Nelson DeMille and Charles McCarry (one of which compares Furst to Eric Ambler and John LeCarre) are a shorthand summary for why Furst is a strong contributor to the spy fiction genre. If his plots are not quite as memorable as McCarry and Ambler in particular, his command of detail is amazing. "Red Gold," another story set in the WWII era in Europe about which Furst always writes, reads almost too convincingly to be fiction, with innumerable small details making life in occupied Paris in 1941 very real.

I have read a fair number of Furst's novels and liked them all. I am challenged to say how this compares to the others, since all are very good and none quite at the level of Ambler or early McCarry (whose "The Secret Lovers" is a masterpiece). In general, the characters do not in general seem to appear in more than one novel (though I gather that the central character in this one, Jean Casson, appears in two others which I have not read), but one roots for each protagonist. My memory may be inaccurate, but the only recurring item seems to be a bullet hole in a mirror in the Heininger restaurant from a pre-war incident.

While the book is not quite a mastepiece, it's a very good read, and far more than mere "beach-reading." Furst is an accomplished and compelling author telling the behind the lines store of Europe's war from different angles in book after book.

[Dick Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s Autumn 1941 and we’re back in Paris again as the World War II menace continues to grow. Jean Casson, once a well-to-do film producer and now a target of the Gestapo, is drawn into a mission of running guns to combat units of the French Communist Party.
I was mildly disappointed with this book. I’ve read several other novels by Alan Furst which have their settings in Europe during WWII but this one didn’t have the exciting events like the ones portrayed in the others. It seems like Furst has taken plot elements of two other novels and used them again this one. However, it’s not totally without some action. Casson and his cohorts transport machine guns from Marseilles to north of Paris but you have to wait until the middle of the book before you read about it. There is also an exciting incident near the end but I won’t reveal it because it would spoil the plot.
The book did have its enjoyable moments. The descriptions of Paris, its people, and the many attractions along its streets, boulevards and alleys brought back fond memories of several visits to that wonderful city.

[Aurelie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Contrary to what the book jacket would have you believe, reading this is not similar to watching "Casablanca for the first time", and contrary to what people have said, Alan Furst hasn't done for World War II what John Le Carre has done for the Cold War. Furst's books aren't bad, on average, but this isn't one of the good ones. Furst is a much worse writer than John le Carre, with no sense of plot and no ability to create characters we want to follow through a novel, or several. Instead, here, he fills his book with rocambolesque (hard-to-believe) action scenes that seem to beg "please make me into a movie" and meaningless sex scenes, like an old man obsessed with bedroom action but not getting any. The best part of the book is where Casson's love interest Helene faces her co-worker turned boss (I think her name was Valentine) who guesses Helene is Jewish and extorts her, but we're only told of all this after the fact, when Helene tells Casson. Instead, endless nonsensical scenes about arms trafficking. I'm giving this two stars instead of one because of Furst's sense for details in evoking the atmosphere of wartime Paris.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is often shelved as espionage or spy thriller. I tend to think of both those terms as trying to steal secrets from the enemy. At least this book in the series is correctly categorized as thriller, but there is nothing on the spy side of the equation. Instead, this is more a book (and I think the series as a whole) as more one of resistence. It is small cells of people - sometimes we get only one individual - working to thwart the work of the enemy.

By the time of this installment Hitler and Stalin are no longer buddies. Jean Casson is down and out in Paris and has false papers under a different name. He is contacted to try to secure machine guns and ammunition for the communists. There are a few other story lines. How does one get around the autocratic Germans? Who is in danger and how to remove that pressure? That sort of thing.

It may be important to read these in order, but I have not. I am aware that there are characters who appear in more than one installment but I haven't read them close enough to each other that I think it matters a lot. Each novel stands on its own and I have not encountered any cliff hangers requiring me to hurry up and read the next one.

This is one of the earlier books in the series and I quite liked it. I see I have read some of the later books and wasn't so enamored. Maybe I just picked those up at the wrong time and this one at the right time. In any case, I liked the writing and the characters. There is plenty of plot, of course, but it isn't all plot. 4-stars and I'll be happy to find myself in front of another.

[Paul Manytravels · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many characters. Too little plot. No unifying story thread. In this book, Alan Faust uselessly resurrects a character from a previous, better novel. The character, Jean Casson, works not as an agent or member of the French Resistance, but rather more like a day laborer or seasonal help. When some group working to thwart the German occupation of France needs something done, it calls upon Casson. He is employed to perform a task, does so, then continues to wander aimlessly through life, surviving periods of freezing temperatures and near starvation in between jobs. He seems dedicated to nothing, believes in nothing, and cares about nothing, including himself.
The last thirty or so pages demonstrated that Furst has finally had enough. He cobbles together an ending with little or no relationship to what has come before in the novel simply to bring the book to an end. The novel does not 'conclude,' it just ends, but 260 pages too late.
Three stars is a very generous rating.

[Harold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again Furst shows himself to be second to no one (sorry. Had to do it) when it comes to recreating the atmosphere of the period he is writing about, in this case early 40s Paris. Furst's books seem to roll along (like life) with event after event. I don't know what to call it but it certainly works. I just read two in a row by him and the next book in the series is already purchased. I'm not immediately moving on to it but it is definitely coming up. Interesting and fascinating books.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Red Gold, the fifth book of his loosely-connected Night Soldiers novels - all of which have featured different protagonists - author Alan Furst breaks form and returns us to the world of Jean Casson, the character at the center of the preceding volume, The World at Night.

It is late 1941, and having, in the name of love, forfeited a chance to escape occupied France, former film producer Casson is living on the margins of Paris under an assumed name. He has lost the woman for whom he returned and is just barely keeping his head above water when he is contacted by Captain Degrave, an old comrade from his days in the army.

Degrave has a proposal for the desperate Casson: use the bohemian and leftist connections made in his days in the film industry to make contact with the French Communists, the only organized resistance actively fighting the Germans. The once hesitant Casson agrees, and discovers that he has found his footing in the shadowy world of espionage and smuggling. A man who now knows not only how to improvise, but how to survive, he embarks on a series of missions that inflict damage on the forces of his country's occupiers.

Despite his growing confidence, however, danger remains constant. Hélène, a woman with whom he is having an affair is an undocumented Jew living in plain sight in Paris, and Casson must juggle trying to get her out of the country with navigating the infighting and assassination that is the stock-in-trade of the Soviet-supported French communists.

Red Gold is, like the other Jean Casson novel, not the author's very best work, but it is nonetheless excellent, Alan Furst's best being far, far better than most. Also, like many of his books, it is more of a slice of wartime life than a story with a defined beginning, middle and end. Furst richly evokes the atmosphere of a time when Paris, a city initially hopeful that German occupation would be just one more inconvenience to be endured for a while, began to shake itself awake and fully realize that it had no choice but to confront both the invaders and those who would collaborate with them. Fans of the Night Soldiers series will not be disappointed.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Red Gold continues the story of Parisian director Jean-Claude Casson in occupied France during World War II. It is not a true sequel to The World at Night as Casson is no longer the main character. Before, readers were shown only his point of view as he struggled to stay out of the path of war and espionage, ultimately failing. In Red Gold, Casson serves as a thread tying together various storylines and brief scenes of the lives involved in the Resistance movement. Some of the other characters include communist insurgents, Jews in hiding, Nazis enjoying Paris life. They often only show up for a scene or two and we learn their fate when Casson reads the paper the next day.

One of the reason I enjoy Furst’s novels is he tells stories of World War II that I am not familiar with. The war in this novel is not an American one. The Americans are mentioned as a mythical force in the background; they might end the war sooner, “if they get organized.” Instead, the vignettes focus on the many Resistance movements, their disparate views, and their varied methods of pushing back against the Germans. Among them the Communists who, having struggled to overthrow the political system of France for so long, have an extensive network of spies and a willingness for violence the other groups lack. Meanwhile, the Gaullists have the resources of England and strategic targets but no manpower. They come to the conclusion to work together against a common enemy, while acknowledging they will be enemies again when the war ends. Casson has no particular political affiliations or strong beliefs and so becomes the perfect ambassador between the two groups.

Red Gold can stand on its own as a novel, but I suggest reading The World at Night first because the character development in that story makes this one more believable and relatable. It ends as it begins, mid-scene in the ongoing world of war. The stories aren’t concluded neatly or in a heartwarming manner, but they give a vivid picture of the people who lived in that time.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this excellent story, the reader is re-introduced to Jean Casson, the movie producer from The World at Night. In the previous book he jumped into the water from an English escape boat to rejoin his lover Citrine. Ironically, she disappeared and eventually married someone else. As a result, penniless and friendless, Casson is back in Paris, hunted as an fugitive by the Gestapo.

He gets involved with a group of Vichy officers who want to resist the Germans and try to enlist the Communists as allies. He endures a number of close calls and becomes involved with, Helene, a Jewess who is hiding her identity. As is so typical of Furst, many interesting minor characters come and go, the plot advances in fits and starts and somehow Casson stumbles around and still manages to complete the tasks he's assigned.

Furst's most obvious talent is to set a mood and draw the reader in so that you feel like you are in German occupied Paris, living in seedy hotels, constantly afraid, always hungry but still somehow bravely doing what needs to be done.

I can hardly wait to get my hands on his latest effort, Spies of the Balkans. I've read all his other historical spy stories.

[Ellie Midwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love well-written historical thrillers, “Red Gold” will be a perfect choice for you. It’s a bit noir, brooding, dark and haunting - just like Occupied Paris itself, in which the action takes place. Casson himself - a former film producer on the run - is grim and forlorn, hiding from the Gestapo under a false name and seeing no future for himself in this new France, swarming with uniformed men. But one day, and quite by accident, Casson gets involved with the Resistance, and his life changes drastically, changing him in turn: from the desperate man in hiding into someone with a goal, someone who doesn’t mind risking his life for what is right.
I absolutely loved the setting of this novel, which was so detailed, so authentic that I could almost breathe the air of Occupied France, see the people walking its streets, taste the food they shared in clandestine cafes. The research is absolutely outstanding, and characters are wonderfully real. Casson himself is not your typical hero who comes unscathed out of every situation and saves the world in the end; he’s an ordinary man with very ordinary motives and emotions, and that’s what makes him so damn likable and easy to identify with. I also love Furst’s writing style with his short, snappy sentences - always precise and to the point. An absolutely wonderful historical fiction novel! I wish I could give it more than five stars!

[Lianne]

This mystery "Red Gold" follows "The World at Night", set in 1940. It is a year later (October 1941. ) The Occupation is underway and the main character John Casson has assumed a new identity. He is hiding from the Gestapo, living on a few francs during the "darkest hour" of the war when the Germans have decisive momentum. The political motives of the characters Casson meets become murky. It becomes difficult to know whether they are as they say, or double agents with other agendas. Casson becomes drawn into an alliance with the French Communist party to run arms for the resistance.
Times are bleak under the Vichy government while in England, De Gaulle is beginning to build support. Internecine rivalries between factions complicate the mission.Victory seems too much to hope for. At most the resistance works to slow down the Nazi advance elsewhere. Pearl Harbor happens and now the French and Casson hang on through a hopeless time. Small and large acts of courage give meaning to each day.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog here in February 2001.

Following on from The World at Night, Red Gold continues to chronicle the exploits of Hugh Casson, one time film producer, as he becomes reluctantly involved with the various anti-German factions of occupied Paris. While definitely wanting the Germans ruling France, Casson is not a hero and probably would have kept his head down and stayed far away from de Gaullists, disgruntled Vichy Regime secret service and certainly the Communists if circumstances has allowed.

As in The World at Night, two components of Red Gold lift it above the usual level of Resistance thrillers: the characterisation of Casson and the atmospheric depiction of wartime France. Red Gold is basically more of the same, as you might expect of a sequel; The World at Night set a high standard which is maintained here.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 5th book in Alan Furst's "Night Soldiers" series, but it is also a continuation from the previous book "The World At Night". Once again the main character is Jean Casson, who was a well known film producer before the war. After a run in with the Gestapo, and a missed chance to flee the continent, Casson finds himself inhabiting the seedier side of Parisian life.
He becomes embroiled with the French Resistance, and starts to act as a go between between two differing resistance factions. On one side there is the resistance loyal to DeGaulle, and on the other there is the French Communists. The two factions deeply distrust each other, but seemily have to co-operate in the effort to provide an effective resistance. Could this merging be managed with the help of Casson?
Once again this book has plenty of atmosphere, with well crafted characters, although sometimes the plot is a little predictable. Even if you don't read the series in order, it is still worth tackling "The World At Night", before this one as that introduces you to the character of Casson.

[Darwin8u · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent follow-up to 'The World At Night', 'Red Gold' continues the saga of Jean Casson's struggle to survive both morally and physically in Nazi occupied and collaborating France.

I prefer Furst's novels that center on Eastern European characters ('the Polish Officer', 'Dark Star', 'Night Soldiers') instead of French, but it is hard to deny that even though it isn't a major Furst novel, it is still a highly readable one. Using Jean Casson allows Furst to explore the world of those French collaborators, profiteers, and elites of Pétain's France who refused to see the German occupiers for what they were. Furst clearly demarks the fragmented France that was left after Germany's invasion and the Vichy collaboration.

This novel should be read closely with 'A World at Night'. Like I wrote about that novel, even though I find this to be a minor Furst novel, it is context that matters. Most spy novelists don't approach the art or the skill of a minor Furst novel. So enjoy.

[AC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading after World at Night, but the book has some real weaknesses. The plot is careless thrown together, far too many deus ex machina's -- (that should be Dei ex..., of course; but hey...) -- Jean-Claude gets arrested; a door mysteriously opens... poof! he walks out into the night..., etc. And no resolution at the end -- Furst keepiing his options open for the next book(s).... and what's with the anachronism of Casson buying and reading, in 1941/42, "a tattered copy" of Braudel's Mediterranean...?!

Eh, bien... still worth reading after World...

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish Furst had written more books about this protagonist (film producer turned reluctant spy Jean-Claude Casson). I like how much is left unresolved in this and THE WORLD AT NIGHT both, in that so much about the world then involved loose ends and the unknown; but I also want to know if he makes it through the war alive.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

episodic, casablancesque love story, great French Resistance spy story, intriguing characters, killer ending

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whew. Finished this long ago. Loved it. But then, I'm an Alan Furst junkie.

[Jack Goodstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

French resistance in the early 40's--gives a panoramic view of a lot of different characters, focusing on an ex-film producer's efforts to keep out of the Nazi's view and fight them in some way.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Furst's publisher chose to highlight him as a master of the "atmospheric spy thriller" in the note on the author at the end of his novel, Red Gold. "Atmospheric" is a pleasant but accurate tease. In Red Gold Jean Casson, a former movie producer turned anti-German activist at the outset of WWII, spends a lot of time contemplating rain lashing his windowpanes, listening to the rumble of trains taking him into danger, lurking around critical river locks in the dark, and scrounging up a few francs for real coffee in a smokey café instead of roast barley infusions. The setting is largely Paris with a few excursions south and north. And the atmosphere in Paris in 1940-41, overrun by Germans--largely but not exclusively louts--surely was as Furst presents it. Lots of shadows, people following you, assassinations, betrayals, and conflicts between the de Gaulle cadre, the British-backed infiltrators/saboteurs, the hard-edged emissaries of Stalin, the men and women working against the Vichy regime from within, the unions, and the unaffiliated, somewhat unwilling moral actors like Casson.

Furst handles all this masterfully, inserting a few romantic encounters and presenting a variety of hard-bitten and odious characters on the fringes of history, ready to trip you, steal your gun, and kill your friend.

This is, as Graham Greene would put it, an "entertainment," a kind of spellbinding spectacle full of hypocrisy, irony, and bad luck, in which Casson has a few brief ups and a few dreadful downs. He excels in accepting the ambiguity of being pursued both by the Gestapo and some of his alleged colleagues in disruption.

Furst's aesthetic strength probably is not making too much of Casson or others, both in the negative and positive sense. He's a guy in a jam, not an existentialist anti-hero, and he's a fellow who knows he may never see his short-time lover again...but can live with it...good for her...nice while it lasted.

I like Paris, Europe, modern history, and all the cagey details Furst inserts into the narrative. He makes a brutal truck run through backwoods France fascinating. He takes a little thing--some boxes of machine guns originating in Syria--and turns it into connective tissue for a plot that encompasses much more than being able to knock off the bad guys.

By 1941, we know, WWII was just hitting its stride in Europe. Furst doesn't have to make that point; all he has to do is make us see how difficult it was for anyone to simply survive until 1941, never mind VE-Day.

[Duffy Pratt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fine installment in the Night Soldiers series. It focuses on Jean Casson, who was the central character in The World at Night. I liked this book better than it's predecessor, but I think the two could have worked well as a single novel. Casson is a former film producer, more or less without ideology, who gets lured/pulled into the French resistance.

In this book, he is trying to re-establish some kind of a life for himself, and does this by becoming an intermediary between the DeGaulle resistance and the more active, and brutal Communist resistance. The factions hate each other almost as much as they hate Hitler, and the chance of betrayals or reprisals is extremely high.

In Furst's world, it is often ambiguous whether a minor event is simply that, or something more sinister. As a result, his books often feel a little disjointed and even plotless. This is a feature, not a bug. That uncertainty about everything is a crucial part of his world, and one of the chief things that leads to the atmosphere of danger and foreboding. That said, this is one of the more tightly plotted of his books, if only because his characterizations here are a bit stronger than they have been in some other books, especially with the more minor characters.

It's also cool the way Furst has his characters doing things that seem relatively minor in the context of WWII, but still gives you a sense of their importance. Casson, who is more or less a nobody, tries to sabotage some oil transports on the Seine, which will be headed to North Africa to fuel Rommel's tanks. If he succeeds, it might slow down deliveries for a few weeks or a month, which seems really small in the context of the war, but still noble and vital to the war effort.

As always, the writing is clean and strong on atmosphere. In some ways, I think that World at Night and this book might be the best introduction to Furst.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very strong four-star story. It is a direct sequel to the prior Furst novel, ‘The World at Night’, and together they form a diptych, which, if sold under one cover, is very nearly a five-star novel. The protagonist of both, who fails as a spy and saboteur in the first, throughout the second becomes more of a professional in France’s covert resistance to the Germans. In doing so, he also serves on the front lines of the longer-horizon struggle between the various resistance groups, all of whom sought to lay the foundation for future power once the Wehrmacht was expelled. The Communist groups had different goals and levels of acceptable violence than the nationalist groups, than the Jewish groups, than the former-military groups. Even as they served side-by-side in an alliance of convenience, they still took turns betraying others, assassinating their enemies, blowing up anything they could, and convening clandestine midnight meetings. All of this is the canvas against which Furst writes, and it is as entertaining, vivid, and soulful as usual.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably closer to a 3.5 read. The Night Soldiers books are really good at putting the reader into the day to day life of living through World War II. The mood and the setting are always really well done. The plots always seem to meander along with no real end in sight, but I enjoy them nonetheless.

[Dianeparente62gmail.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

Travel back in time to World War II occupied France with Alan Furst's characters and you are in for a gripping reading experience. Furst creates characters and settings so real you feel you know them and are experiencing their trials and small triumphs with them.them. An added bonus is Furst's narrative style enlivened often by a delightful sense of humor.

His hero this time, Casson, is a down and out French film producer used to the good life. War has intervened rendering that occupation a closed door so he becomes a go-between for various factions of the Resistance. Along the way he encounters love and does all he can to save his Jewish lover while connecting with his ex-wife who provides some relief to his penniless misery. She also steers him into a different Resistance group where he is again propelled into life-threatening missions to sabotage the German war machine. An added historical bonus is the novel's portrayal of the various groups, the communists among them, working to place themselves in power after the war.

It is relatively easy to lose track of the characters but that in no way undermines Furst's painting of believable, brave men and women fighting the oppressive Nazi presence to survive and, perhaps some day, govern. This novel is a trip back in time to share the experiences of those under Germany's ruthless rule.