In a style faintly reminiscent of Proust our hero forces himself through the second world war barely managing to stay alive and the end is very British. While lyrical and pleasing in cadence I prefer my spies terribly clever and innovative.

The story of an intelligence officer working for the Polish resistance during the years of WWII. Beautifully written and precisely evocative of the period, with particularly well-drawn characters, it is a significant book of literature and not just a good espionage novel. One of his best.

Alan Furst follows a formula that has proven so successful for him. A more or less ordinary man finds himself in the midst of World War Two. In these extraordinary conditions, the ordinary man finds himself capable of surprising acts of courage and even heroism. `The Polish Officer' opens with the German invasion of Warsaw and within a few hours Captain Alexander de Milja, a cartographer by profession, is recruited into the Polish resistance's intelligence service.

Many of the characters occupying Furst's novels are not so devoted to the good fight as de Milja or Jean Casson (Red Gold and World at Night). As one of de Milja's compatriots says, "As you get older, you accept venality. Then you learn to like it - a certainty in an uncertain world." Furst excels at giving the reader a feel for what it might have been like to risk betrayal to the SS in every hour of the day.

Furst always does his homework when he writes what he calls his `historical spy novels' and it shows. The details provide the sense of verisimilitude that makes his books so enjoyable. His characters are always interesting and often multi-dimensional. My only gripe with `The Polish Officer' is that de Milja moves swiftly across Europe serving in at least four separate major undertakings in four different locations. That seems like an unlikely set of circumstances. It is a minor quibble because each episode can stand on its own merit once de Milja's back story is established in the opening pages.

An excellent read for fans of the spy genre, which has produced a surprisingly long line of excellent writers. Alan Furst's name belongs aside Eric Ambler, Graham Greene, John LeCarre, Charles McCarry, and Robert Littell. ( )

12.23.06 ( )

More Alan Furst, this time covering Poland.
I would like to see book that covers Russia over this period in more detail. We have Dark Star but the subject is so large it could do from a viewing from different angles. ( )