I haven't read Alan Furst in a long time, but it was terrific to return to Occupied Paris and the French Resistance. So many legends grew up around the Resistance in post-war France. But many brave french men and women were willing to risk their livelihoods and lives to defeat the German occupiers.

Matheiu is a well developed character, and this glimpse into the heart of the war was well worth reading.

Long delayed book on my NetGalley backlist. I'm very glad to have finally read it!

Furst has a real gift for WWII noir, set on the fringes of occupied Europe from Brittany to the Balkans. This installment is a glimpse into the operations of one of the many short-lived French (the expectation was maybe 6 months, tops) smuggling routes guiding downed pilots to safety in Spain. Matthieu and his resistance cell move people and material from the Normandy coast to the Pyrenees, every wary of Vichy collaborators, bribe-taking bureaucrats and everyday assholes who will dime out a countryman for not being sufficiently deferential over a train seat. Meanwhile, the Germans have assigned a Hamburg detective to apply his investigative talents to sniffing out why so many Wellingon bomber radio operators are ending up back in flight rather than in POW camps. Furst is really good at all the details of life in occupied Europe, the skills people bring to underground movements, and the realities of bureaucracies and military organizations.