Extremely suspenseful and well-plotted. I enjoyed this book very much and highly recommend it. Hard to put down!

Over the years, I have read several of Alan Furst's books and while I appreciated the writing, I never truly warmed to his books. I did like a couple of them (Dark Voyage and Spies of Warsaw). However, with this one, I find even the writing pedestrian and repetitious. The book bounces between a romance (with the main character, Cristián Ferrar, involved with two women) and a spy story with an episodic plot that never really took off. Furst has been frequently compared with LeCarre, but there is nothing in Furst that compares with the tradecraft and moral ambiquity of the best of LeCarre. In fact, the espionage tradecraft in this book seems pretty naive - Cristián and his partner de Lyon are continually telling everyone exactly what they are doing - buying arms for the Spanish Republican Army - and in essence throwing themselves at the mercy of the gangsters and bureaucrats they are dealing with. I never cared what happened to Cristián and his women, to Cristián and his law firm, or even Cristián and his arms-buying. Perhaps it has to do with already knowing how the overall events turned out (the Spanish Republic loses, Germany invades France and so on), but I felt no tension or suspense during any of the events. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad (although we don't really meet any bad guys during the course of the novel; they exist mainly as off screen villains). I know Furst has his fans, and I have appreciated some of his books in the past, but his one falls way short.

Unfortunately this was a did not finsih book for me. I reached almost half way through and I failed to connect with the story. It just wasn’t working for me. I will not be rating or reviewing this title. I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.

My feedback comments have gone missing! I reviewed this title previously yet it still appears in my list, "GIVE REVIEWS"