The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst was a good historical spy novel. I found out about the book from a New York Times travel section article. Since I regularly travel through Warsaw, I was interested to learn more about the city. While the novel mentioned places and streets in Warsaw it didn’t paint the descriptive picture of the city that I was expecting.
The story is about a French military officer, Jan-Francois Mercier, stationed in Warsaw during the autumn of 1937. He is a diplomatic spy for the French government. The other major characters include Colonel Anton Vyborg of the Polish military intelligence, the sophisticated and mysterious Dr. Lapp of the German Abwehr, Malka and Viktor Rozen of the Russian Secret Service and Mayor August Voss of SS counterintelligence. Of course amidst all the intrigue, Colonel Mercier develops a romance with Anna Szarbek, a lawyer for the League of Nations.
The Spies of Warsaw was like a slow dance compared to the gyrations of spy novels set in modern times that I have read recently. Alan Furst does a great job of describing the ambience of 1930’s Europe under the upcoming storm of war.
I am curious if the Germans did publish many of the articles and papers mentioned in the book detailing their French battle plans. It is hard to imagine that Marshal Petain was so blind to a Germany attack through the Ardennes skirting the Maginot Line. I believe it is critical to always remember that what once was might not be again. We must always be preparing for the new battlefield. Unfortunately as we get older, we get set in our ways and it is hard to adapt. Hence, why most innovations come from the young.
