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THE TIMES ‘100 BEST SUMMER READS’

‘Magnificent’ Sunday Times
‘Gripping… the twists and intrigue keep coming’ Observer
‘As ever, Furst vividly evokes a sense of time and place’ Mail on Sunday (Must-Read Books of the Year)

Occupied Paris, 1942.
In the dark, treacherous city, the German occupying forces are everywhere-and so are French resistance fighters, working secretly to defeat Hitler.

Just before he dies, a man being chased by the Gestapo hands off a strange-looking document to the unsuspecting novelist Paul Ricard. It looks like a blueprint of a part for a military weapon – one that might have important information for the Allied forces – and Ricard realizes he must try to get it into the hands of members of the resistance network.

As he finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into anti-German efforts, Ricard travels deep into enemy territory and along the escape routes of underground resistance safe houses, spying on Nazi maneuvers. And when he meets the mysterious and beautiful Leila, a professional spy, they begin to work together to get crucial information out of France and into the hands of the Allied forces in London.

ALAN FURST – The master of the historical spy novel
‘Alan Furst is in a class of his own’ William Boyd
‘Furst is an addiction’ The Times
‘If you are a John le Carre’ fan, this is definitely for you’ James Patterson
‘Furst’s ability to recreate the terrors of espionage is matchless’ Robert Harris
‘America’s preeminent spy novelist’ New York Times
‘Furst never stops astounding me’ Tom Hanks
‘How I envy anybody who has not yet discovered Furst’s writing’ Telegraph

Publisher Review

PRAISE FOR ALAN FURST, THE MASTER OF THE HISTORICAL ESPIONAGE NOVEL 'Furst's ability to recreate the terrors of espionage is matchless' Robert Harris 'Furst is an addiction' The Times 'If you are a John le Carre' fan, this is definitely a novel for you' James Patterson on Mission to Paris 'Furst never stops astounding me' Tom Hanks 'America's preeminent spy novelist' New York Times 'How I envy anybody who has not yet discovered Furst's writing' Telegraph 'Furst's books are like Chopin's nocturnes: timeless, transcendent, universal. One does not so much read them as fall under their spell' Los Angeles Times As ever, Furst vividly evokes a sense of time and place * Mail on Sunday * A gripping story of a novelist handed a top-secret blueprint by a dying man and tasked with getting it into the hands of the French resistance while hounded by the Gestapo . . . the twists and intrigue keep coming * Observer * Furst's prose is almost understated but he conjures up a universe. Wartime Paris is lovingly depicted: the smell of wet leaves, the taste of chicory coffee, the flics in their rain capes, a loaded glance across a cafe. Most of all, the sense of menace * Financial Times * Furst's novels are often seen as historical thrillers because they are set in WWII but there is no need to look to the sub-set for reputation, he stands with the best in the espionage genre. * NB Magazine * 'If any thriller writer has absolutely nailed a time and place in which to set his fiction, in this case France and Eastern Europe at the beginning of World War II, it is the American master of historical spy-fi Alan Furst ... Alan Furst is a master of his chosen material and his writing is cool, calm and very collected and proves, yet again, that he is one of the truly great writers of espionage fiction. * Shots Magazine *