[parsig9]

In the last few years I've ventured away from my history books and started to read some fiction. Much of it spy and WWII in genre. Started with Deighton and Follett (just finished Bomber...wow). Also a 4 part fiction series on Irish independance that starts in 1916. Outstanding! Some Martin Caidin stuff ya'll suggested last year...very good.

Now am looking at Alan Furst or Eric Ambler and was hoping some of you might give me some advise on what to pick.

Anybody read Kingdom of Shadows or Blood of Victory by Furst?

What about a Coffin for Dimitrios by Ambler? Others. Every so often I ask the crew here and then I read 5 or 6 and check back?

[Folgore]

I've read Furst's Kingdom of Shadows, Blood of Victory and The Polish Officer and can recommend them. The plots don't revolve around Really Big Events (e.g., Assassinate Hitler! or Save D-Day!), which is refreshing, but instead focus on minor players in the war of espionage, working on minor plots but giving their all. Several of Furst's novels are loosely related in that they involve the same espionage network, and Kingdom of Shadows, set in the immediate pre-war period, gives some background on said network. However, while the novel is thick with period atmosphere, not a lot happens. Blood of Victory, set a few years later, is more satisfying, IMHO, and The Polish Officer is very good. Writing quirk: Furst knows period Paris very well, and likes to repeat anecdotes.

I'm currently working my way through Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir collected trilogy. So far: Good classic hardboiled private eye plot, kinda think on the private eye cliches. Kerr does seem to know his mid-'30s Berliner slang, though. At least, I assume it's authentic. Why else would he use so much of it? In any case, it's keeping me turning the pages.

[Shamrock]

Furst is an excellent author who creates very credible and human characters and he captures the time periods very well. The Philip Kerr trilogy that Folgore mentioned is superb and well recommended. Kerr brings in historical figures like the evil Heydrich, Himmler, Goering, and Arthur Nebe and you feel everything sliding towards world war. You can sense the paronoia and fear of pre-war Berlin.

[Folgore]

While we're at it, let's not forget Robert Harris' excellent Fatherland. (Which technically isn't about WWII, I guess, being set in an alternate universe 1964, in which Germany won WWII. Still, it's a detective story, it has a swastika on the cover and it seems pretty WWII-ish to me.*) When it came out, I remember buying it at lunchtime and finishing it in the wee hours of the morning, it's that good. It's still on my bookshelf, long after most other paperbacks have rotated out. While I haven't read Enigma or Archangel, Harris' Pompeii is very good; I'm waiting for Imperium to come out in paperback.




*If that sort of thing is your cup of tea, you can't beat Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. Much of which seems oddly prescient now...

[parsig9]

The Polish officer it is Folgore, then Blood of Victory. Thanks. I've seen the movie Enigma, in fact, I own it and it is quite good I think. Saw Fatherland too and thought it was just OK but I saw it a long time ago and I realize the book is bound to be a whole different experience. Have to look some of the others up.

I want to try to get those in and then Funeral in Berlin before I go back to school Sep 6. Been watching too much Baseball.

[Migmauler]

Staying in the WWII genre, "The Odessa File" by Forsythe is a great one. Outside that check out Ludlum's "Aquataine Progression" and "Parsifal Mosaic", and practically anything else by him. Jon Land has a character named Blaine McCracken that makes Bond look like a choir boy- a bit campy but fun, quick reads. Stephen Hunter's Sniper series was very good as well, the main character being an ex-Marine sniper named Bob Lee Swagger. Clive Cussler and his character Dirk Pitt have some pretty good adventures. Enjoy!

[parsig9]

On Ludlum, I read the Tristan Betrayal and started The Rhineman Exchange. TB was fine. I liked the NKVD interview stuff and Lubianka prison chapters. A little week about the incidental link between the two men ( I won't give too much away).

Not sure I finished RE....must check on that. Thanks

RE comes out on DVD this month I think. That's cool.

[Nimrod48]

For fiction I think Enigma by Robert Harris is excellent by comparison IMHO the film of the book was rubbish, but for a real life spy story try getting hold of a copy of Churchill's Secret Agent written by the agent herself Josephine Butler ISBN 0-907854-02-8 her encounter with a sympathetic German officer driving an English Austin motor car in the French countryside was spell binding.

[Kubikali]

I would go for Ken Follet. I like his work in general, but I love his WWII books.