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Saturday, July 08, 2006

Just Finished Reading: Red Gold by Alan Furst

This is my third Alan Furst book. I’m not sure how I stumbled on this author but I’m certainly glad that I did. He is quite, quite superb.

Red Gold tells the story of Jean Casson a Parisian film producer who drifts into espionage work during the Nazi occupation of France. Told in an almost ‘noir’ style its sparse language clearly and cleverly evokes the mood of a time and place none of us would have liked to have lived through - a time of arbitrary arrest and execution, a time of great fear and uncertainty. Casson survives on his wits, his contacts and a modicum of blind luck. Tasked by the Vichy intelligence service he contacts the only effective résistance organisation France has so far produced – the Communist FTP – and becomes involved in gun running and sabotage.

This is an excellent book. Furst’s style draws you into the often short lives of real people living and dying in dangerous times. The people that pass through the book are fully 3 dimensional having flawed characters, being called upon to make tough decisions, both killing and dying for their beliefs. Some of them are far from pleasant but all are wholly believable. More than once I was actually shocked and not a little dismayed when characters introduced a few pages previously die in a hail of gunfire just as I was getting to ‘know’ them.

Luckily Furst appears to be a prolific writer and I can look forward to more tales of spying in Europe of the 1930’s and 40’s. So far I have not been disappointed and I have the feeling that I never will be. Highly recommended if you enjoy historical novels, spy novels or just a damned good read.

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