Book #44 A Hero Of France

A Hero of France by Alan Furst
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A wonderful, emotional account of of one Resistance cell, in Paris during 1941, helping downed British airmen to escape back to England. Code named Mathieu, he leads this small group - a covert network that numbers Lisette, Joëlle - who falls in love with Mathieu, Max de Lyon, an arms dealer turned nightclub owner, Daniel, a Jewish teacher fuelled by revenge, Chantal and Annemarie. This intimate tale reads like a prose poem as this band of heroes risk everything to outmaneuver collaborators, informers and spies and the threat of discovery by the ruthless German military police.

Alan Furst has made this period of history his own. For me, nobody does it better. Romantic, melancholic and full of suspense and, as The Washington Post said: "And it's not giving anything away to say that in the end many readers will want to stand up and sing 'La Marseillaise' through their tears." C'est vrai....

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Book #82 Mission To Paris

Mission to Paris by Alan Furst
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book had languished on my TBR list for far too long. I had taken too much notice of poor reviews. I should have known better. I have long been a fan of Alan Furst although my last read was several years ago. Mission To Paris is a slow-burner. There are pages where nothing much seems to happen. But throughout there is a palpable sense of menace in the autumn of 1938 in Paris where the possibility of war appeared unavoidable.

Frederic Stahl, a Hollywood film star born in Vienna, travels from California to the boulevards of Paris. He is to star in a film Après La Guerre. He is ill-prepared for the circumstances that overtake him as he is drawn into a clandestine world of espionage and overt propaganda from the Nazi organisation and the chilling heart of the Third Reich. Will Stahl inadvertently become an agent of influence? Will he put himself in harm’s way as German operatives track him across Paris? To what end?

Furst’s knowledge of this period of history is second to none. His familiarity with Paris is comprehensive. His ability to instil a simple sentence with a whiff of something sinister is pitch-perfect.

If you are a fan of Alan Furst and you haven’t yet read Mission To Paris I would recommend that you do. I loved it.

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