When captured, the German’s briefcase reveals photographs of the Greek-Bulgarian border. The book opens with the protagonist, special police agent Costa Zannis, chasing a German spy. It is 1940 and Mussolini and Hitler are eagerly looking to add Greece to their empires. Spies of the Balkans takes place in northern Greece close to the borders of Bulgaria and Turkey. Now when he publishes a new book, it hits the best-seller list, including this summer’s Spies of the Balkans. With each successive book about espionage set during what’s become Furst’s signature historical time, more and more readers came on board. Next came Shadow Trade in 1983, a contemporary spy thriller that transitioned Furst to Night Soldiers (1988), the first of his historical WWII spy fiction for which he’s now known. But Night Soldiers and, next, Dark Star (1991) didn’t skyrocket his popularity and sales, either, although a cult following sprouted around them and grew. In remarks about them to The New York Times, Furst said, “All I was doing was showing how smart I was.” You won’t find these three embarrassments listed under “books by Alan Furst,” though.
His first novel published in 1976, Your Day in the Barrel, is a comic murder mystery, which he followed with two more of similar theme in 19. But Alan Furst hasn’t always been a big hit. He’s considered a master at combining history, politics, espionage and romance in a spellbinding style that drops you into the moment. For a little more than 20 years, Alan Furst has been spinning irresistible espionage set in Europe’s dark time leading up to and including World War II.
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