From the Bookshelf of Espionage Aficionados…

The Foreign Correspondent (Night Soldiers, #9)

Alan Furst

Why we're reading this: Excellent read - anybody that likes espionage fiction about WW2 will like this one!
[close] Excellent read - anybody that likes espionage fiction about WW2 will like this one!

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Dec 09, 2018 Sam Reaves rated it really liked it

Alan Furst's series about espionage in Europe in the late thirties, set in Paris (and points east) and featuring a multi-national ensemble cast, is an extended hommage to the Eric Ambler tradition of spy novels: atmospheric, understated, worldly-wise. The series evokes the dread and fatalism of the period, the waning days of peace with fascism on a seemingly unstoppable march.
In this one, Carlo Weisz, an Italian journalist working for Reuters in Paris, is running an anti-fascist Italian newspape ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Dec 18, 2020 cool breeze rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is the 9th book in Alan Furst’s Night Soldiers series. For the first time, I think he has put all the elements of a great novel together. He was always great on settings, atmosphere, characters and historic research. He was notably weak on plot, which was almost entirely absent in the first 5 books. He started to provide a plot in books 6, 7 and 8, but they weren’t particularly good plots and the ending was typically weak. In The Foreign Correspondent, he provides a good plot, with a good d ...more

Like · see review

Jan 31, 2019 Scott Head rated it liked it

I enjoy all Alan Furst books, and you can always sense when the wrap up is coming and the hero gets the girl. Furst always, to his admitted great delight, loves endings where the hero gets the girl. I also really enjoyed what has become the hallmark of these books for me - that is the painting of a dense apprehension of presence and scene. The last vivid scenes in the tunnels under a Genovese tavern and the piazza attached to it were dark and dank, the smells vivid and the tension high. Great de I enjoy all Alan Furst books, and you can always sense when the wrap up is coming and the hero gets the girl. Furst always, to his admitted great delight, loves endings where the hero gets the girl. I also really enjoyed what has become the hallmark of these books for me - that is the painting of a dense apprehension of presence and scene. The last vivid scenes in the tunnels under a Genovese tavern and the piazza attached to it were dark and dank, the smells vivid and the tension high. Great descriptive and gripping writing from Furst, which is to be expected.

But the story did not grab me like the others in his Night Soldiers series have, and I hope this marks the low tide mark in the novels, as I have a half-dozen more to go. And, of course, I hope there are one or two new ones in the works. But, sadly, it seemed as if Furst was phoning this one in.

What I did love was the well-known and appreciated carry-over of characters from other novels, especially the up-close insights we get of one shady 'S. Kolb,' man of many jobs in the clandestine world of Furst's previous novels. He is more completely presented here, it was good to see the man Furst had given life to so long ago as a shallow character develop into a bit more of a robust name. We also met several other characters and situations, most of them almost cameo-like appearances. Several other scenes seemed to be familiar, as if I'd been there before. I think one particular scene on a Danish yacht must have been the same scene that was so instrumental in previous novels, and I believe the crowd around the table during a "Momo Tsipler and his Weinerwald Companions" performance was the same scene in at least one previous story, for the characters gathered 'round the table were old friends from stories past. I like that. We almost always have to sit for a slappy performance from the seedy Momo Tsipler, by now a franchise in Furst's tales of espionage and shady dealings.

But overall, it was the least enjoyable of the Night Soldiers series, so far. I hope it stays that way. ...more

Like · see review

Jun 22, 2016 Gustavo rated it really liked it

It's a fun book to read. Weisz's love affair with Von Schirren is touching. Weisz's life is dangerous and awesome at the same time. Paris is the main place in this Alan Furst book and there are many details about the city. It makes me think that Paris might be a beautiful city! In my opinion, the only problem is the lack of action.

P.S. Sorry for my english, I am not fluent. ...more

Like · see review