Alan Furst

This is an American writer known for his spy fiction set in Europe before and during World War II. It is combination of stale beer and martini style. The plots are sinister and fraught with cynicism while at the same time being overlayed by grand descriptions of European culture that are almost poetic at times. The usual theme is of a flawed character caught up in the epic struggle and doing his part.

Works include:

1. Night Soldiers (1988)

2. Dark Star (1991)

3. The Polish Officer (1995)

4. The World at Night (1996)

5. Red Gold (1999)

6. Kingdom of Shadows (2000)

7. Blood of Victory (2003)

8. Dark Voyage (2004)

9. The Foreign Correspondent (2006)

10. The Spies of Warsaw (2008)

11. Spies of the Balkans (2010)

Tropes in Alan Furst novels:


 * Anti Hero: the protagonist is usually this
 * Badass Bookworm: several characters
 * Big Bad : Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin
 * The Chessmaster: stuffed to the brim with chessmasters
 * City of Spies: Every city in Europe.
 * Dirty Communists: Furst's Communists are really creepy.
 * Espionage Tropes
 * The Empire: Russia and Germany
 * The Federation: Britain and France
 * Evil Versus Evil: Dirty Communists and Those Wacky Nazis
 * Gambit Pileup
 * Gay Paree : Honestly, Furst seems to have a crush on Paris.
 * Grey and Black Morality
 * Government in Exile
 * Heroic Neutral : several of the characters start as this
 * La Résistance: the good guys
 * Little Hero Big War
 * Ruritania : The best way to describe the little countries all about. A lot of them are Balkan or Eastern European countries ruled by petty Glorious Leader s of varying degrees of evilness but seldom really comparable to the Big Bad s.
 * Secret Police: the Gestapo and the NKVD
 * Techno Babble: Furst fans love his realistic tradecraft.
 * Those Wacky Nazis
 * Ye Goode Olde Days: Furst novels practically drip with nostalgia
 * World War II