Customer Rating: 
Summary: Not one of Furst's best
Comment: While I enjoyed "The Spies of Warsaw", I don't believe it is as good as the two other Furst novels I
have read: "Dark Star" and "Kingdom of Shadows". Once again the hero is a man of action, courage
and steely character, when he needs to be. At the same time he is reflective, and very human. Once
again I learned some history: the French general staff was divided, with one faction very aware of
the threat of a German tank attack through the Ardennes forest; this faction included then Colonel
Charles de Gaulle. Marshall Petain was the leader of the other faction which believed that the
Maginot line provided safety. This is the same Marshall Petain who accepted leadership of the Vichy
government 3 days after the capitulation of France.
Furst several times has his hero
express sympathy for the people who would likely be victimized by the looming war. In the other
novels the ominous future was there more as an undercurrent. I also believe the women in the other
two novels were better developed. "Dark Star" was a more complex, harrowing novel, while "Kingdom
of Shadows" had a better plot and pre-war atmosphere.
Customer Rating: Summary: Not Furst's best work, but readable
Comment: The Spies of Warsaw is set in pre-war Poland. The main plot is focused on procuring German
engineering schematics for tanks, and ultimately, getting an agent inside the German intelligence
machine.
Others have elaborated on the plot, so I'm going to focus on why I think
this is one of Furst's weaker efforts. First, the good: The prose, as always, is crisp and has an
excellent attention to detail. Furst is a master of capturing the subtitles in both dialogue and
details that put him far ahead most other 'genre' writers. His books are supremely readable, and
Furst, off his game, is still head-and-shoulders above virtually all of his competition. If you like
his other books, you will like this one as well. If you are new to Furst, start with his excellent
Dark Star or Night Soldiers. They are more representative of what makes Furst a master of the
historical espionage novel.
I've enjoyed all his novels, and I enjoyed this one as
well, but like The Foreign Correspondent, the dramatic pacing has fallen off from his earlier work.
The protagonist, Colonel Mercier, is interesting and sympathetic, a man working against the odds:
French stubbornness, Polish ineptitude, and the relentless frustration of the Germans and their
desire for revenge. However, I found him to have less depth than a typical Furst character, and I
never really engaged or believed in his specific goals, including his love affairs, which seemed
driven more by sexual tension than love. He always behaves with a pristine rationality and purpose
that leaves little doubt of his ultimate success, both in the seedy world of the spy, and his
romantic interests. There is little to no doubt that Colonel Mercier will achieve all his objectives
with relative ease.
This is the most sexually charged of Furst's novels, with Colonel
Mercier coming across as a possible sexual addict. He is not amoral, but on the verge of it, once
almost willing to rekindle an incestuous relationship with his cousin that began when he was a boy.
He totters on the edge of knocking on her door to resume where things left off at thirteen, now an
adult, and most certainly knowing better. It's not the sexual content that offends, but the seeming
lack of consideration that Colonel Mercier gives sexual matters. If this were a telling element of
his character that had larger ramifications and was expanded in the novel, it would be quite
interesting. Instead, the reader is left with the sense that Mercier is simply hedonistic, which
flies in the face of his other traits: selflessness, intelligence, self awareness, and, strangely,
self control.
The pacing in the development of the plot is problematic. Colonel
Mercier first pursues a compromised German engineer to secure tank schematics. This branch of plot
develops nicely, and I was expecting it to be the main thrust of the book. In a sense it is, but
through a mechanistic transition to the pursuit of a key Nazi dissident and the exploitation of his
contacts within German Intelligence. This plot line is at times tedious, with very little at stake.
One of the unfortunate things about writing the historical novel, is that it is, in fact,
historical. The reader knows that Poland will fall, and later France. The procurement of a mid-level
German contact and ultimately Germany's war plans for the invasion of France is only so compelling
knowing the ultimate outcome. Furst has deftly navigated this territory before, and succeeded
because of his protagonist's personal stake in the main action of each book. In The Spies of Warsaw,
Mercier's knowledge of the larger events unfolding around him is so detailed and cynical that we
cannot ever imagine that his actions and successes will change a thing. We know his small victories
are for naught, as he himself on some level also realizes. If the book was a tragedy it would be
acceptable. For a spy novel, intended to compel through tension, it is not.
