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Summary: You'll feel their pain
Review: Alan Furst writes of the days before WWII when the great powers were maneuvering for position - and the little people were just trying to live another day, if they could.
For some, the ongoing conflict swept them into its arms. Nicholas Morath, a Hungarian, becomes with espionage. From Paris, he embarks on his missions to keep his native Hungarian from being sucked into the embrace of Germcany.
Furst is a masterful storyteller. All of his characters feel real. The agony of pre-war Europeans, knowing even against all their denials, that war is a very real possibility try to choose the winning side, conniving, betraying, doing whatever is necessary to ensure their survival.
It is impossible to read a Furst novel without feeling a sadness for these people and the tens of millions for whom death and pain would soon be a visitor.
Jerry
Rating: 
Summary: To The Extent It Proceeds¿.Elegant
Review: "Kingdom Of Shadows", by Alan Furst is my initial exposure to this writer's work. He is good, very good; suggesting that this work will appeal to the admirers of Mr. John LeCarre is entirely reasonable. Mr. Furst writes with confidence, and a smooth credibility that allows readers to suspend disbelief, and become wrapped in the authenticity he creates.The time period and locales are sometimes familiar, however he also brings his readers amongst participants in World War II that are usually lost amongst the larger players in stories of intrigue. One of the more refreshing attributes of his writing is that he does not turn every doorman or driver of a taxi into James Bond. If a character has certain skills it is because he or she has come by them by experience, not Author convenience. This restraint from the use of contrived, shrill, theatrical characters that can be transposed from one thriller to another are happily absent from this man's work. He also has the sense a delicate touch that allows him to portray intimacy without sounding like cretinous locker room banter. The time in History for his protagonist's exploits is just before World War was to break loose for the second time in as many decades. Nicholas Morath who we shadow around Europe could easily have become a cliché, or worse a caricature. This is especially true as his position in society changes, however the Author never looses control of his character. The result is a book that is tense, filled with intrigue, and lacking in repetitive events this genre is filled with. My only complaint is that the book ended as opposed to resolving the storyline. It may be the Author intends to continue with these characters. However even if this is the case, I found the ending abrupt.
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Summary: Espionage as it should be
Review: Absolutely fun, riveting, startling. I want to read all his books.
Rating: 
Summary: Some good set pieces that go nowhere
Review: After reading other reviews of this book, I was ready for a great, noir-ish spy novel. What I got was a frustratingly vague and unconvincing trip through pre-war Europe with a couple of adventurous interludes in an otherwise flat story. It started out well - who can resist a tale beginning with a man getting off a train at night in Paris? But the man is hollow. There is no sense of conviction about him. What was his past? What drives him to undertake this dangerous work? His diplomatic uncle seems to have no duties outside eating and drinking in louche cafes. His relationship with a rich, useless mistress is sexist and boring. In fact, nearly every woman in this novel is treated with condescension or contempt. That's only a minor quibble, though, about a spy novel that is not gripping, where the stakes, we are told, are high, but where this desperation is not demonstrated in a way that makes us feel the fear of a coming war and the possible consequences to the characters. Instead, these characters seem to be sleepwalking in and out of the narrative with no real purpose or sense of urgency. Who are they? What is at stake for them? Why should we, the readers, care about them and what may happen to them? The author merely describes emotions instead of invoking them. Everything is pat and formulaic, as though the author had selected items from a list of 1930s set pieces and strung them together to create "atmosphere." There's more atmosphere and psychological depth to the characters in Raymond Chandler's detective novels than can be found in this novel supposedly taking place in one of the most fraught and frightening periods of 20th Century history. And the ending is preposterous. Either Furst became bored with the whole exercise and decided to just stop, or, as I think more likely, his imagination and emotional engagement with his subject were too superficial to sustain another word!
Rating:
Summary: An elegant, marvelous spy thriller
Review: Alan Furst's new novel is, in one word, delicious. Sleek and elegant, it captures pre-World War II Paris and Eastern Europe pitch-perfect, with so much attention to detail and culture that the reader is plunged into the dark alleys and deep forests of Morath's world. The driving plot never misses a beat, and both dialogue and description are clever, true to character (of both the protagonists and of the land), and occasionally very beautiful in a tense, dark, film-noir way. I didn't exactly warm to Morath -- there was a disappointing lack of character development, as some other reviewers have noted, and in my opinion he never really stepped off the pages into three dimensions (the same for many other characters, except for a few notable members of the supporting cast). It's why I felt this book merited four stars instead of five. But the real show lies in Furst's masterful evocation of a world; his descriptions lend rich texture and depth to the story, speeding it up, adding to its tension, rather than bogging it down. His language allows us to board the swaying night trains racing from Paris to Budapest, lets us see the sparkle of a Cartier bracelet or the flicker of a Russian nightclub show, takes us into the cool gardens of expatriate Magyar nobility, thrusts us into the heart-pounding panic of a struggle in a Czech forest. From luxury cars to old rum and Imperial medals to the details of chic outfits and romantic pulp novels, the skittish decadence and danger of Morath's existence pervades every page of this thrilling, stylish, extremely enjoyable read.
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Summary: Kingdom of Shadows is Somewhat Murky
Review: As much as I wanted to like this book, I know it is one that I will forget quickly. The author's idea was good: a Hungarian male named Morath living in Paris in 1938 becomes drawn into secretive schemes to support the Eastern European countries against Hitler. He makes skirmishes into Nazi occupied territory, risking his life to rescue people trapped behind the lines. This book could have been good if it had been fleshed out with more detail, more explanations of events and relationships among characters, and with more complete transitions between events. It always seemed to have holes in the storyline, so just when I thought I was beginning to understand what was going on, I'd get lost again. I had to make a lot of assumptions about why the characters were doing the things they did, and what happened between events to make sense out of the sequence. To help me understand, I stopped about a third of the way through to do some research on the actual history that occurred in this region on the brink of World War II. It did help, but the sketchiness of the story kept me from getting fully involved in the plot or the characters, and kept me from forming good mental images. It's the ability of a story to create pictures in your mind that makes it memorable. The book is rather short - 239 pages, and certainly could have been plumped up to make a more complete and satisfying story.
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Summary: Shadows GLows
Review: Furst demostrates an astonishing level of erudition and sensibility regarding Hungary, Hungarian culture, pre war life in Paris, and the mores of middle European nobility. Does he make this stuff up? Regardless, he is brilliant, omnisicent, a joy to read and blessed with an amusingly naughty sensibility. It is literate and encompassing. I slowed down at the end becasue I couldn't bear to finish it. It was that lovely. One is extremely envious of his giftwhich is palpable. His ability transcends the genre entirely, if there is a genre here at all. I shall trudge out in the heat of a summer's night to a real bookstore just to pick up whatever else I can find of his. Probably nothing and I live near 2 huge B&Ns.
Rating:
Summary: Return to form & best yet
Review: Furst started so strongly -- with Night Soldiers and Dark Star -- that he was almost bound to slip off track at some point. For me the two novels comprising the Red Gold story, fine as they are, were his nadir to date, and Kingdom of Shadows represents a striking return to form. Still, that is perhaps not altogether fair (or true), for looking back over his novels to date, in each I have been very aware of a craftsman working on his craft, trying one thing, trying another, not always having the same degree of success, but never settling for second best either. In each there is something of listening to a great musician (or a musician on his way to being a great musician) practicing. Almost each time out, there is a breakthrough of some kind. Kingdom of Shadows is his best yet at developing fully rounded characters. Count Polonyi, for example -- a bit over-stuffed and smelling of tobaco, intelligence and intrigue -- is worthy of a truly great novelist, which Furst seems about to become, having already outstripped the limitations of his chosen genre. Still, no mistake, there is plenty of Furst's talent for fine detail and smoky atmosphere, for moral ambiguity and scarifying walks down dark corridors. And there is also still plenty of his sometimes infuriating (to me at least) picaresque habit of moving briskly and brusquely from one location to another -- suggesting (and perhaps hoping for) the pace and plotting of an action-packed film noir on a ten day tour of the capitals of Europe. (When Hollywood finally starts making his novels into films, this now-cultish following should mushroom into the stuff of real best-seller status.) Selfishly, I wish he and his wife would move back to Europe -- where he wrote at least the first two of his books -- because from his current writing studio in Sag Harbor he sometimes strains for the dazzling atmospherics that seemed to come so naturally in the earlier books. The authentic smell of the Parisian pissoire has been missing for sometime, as have the dampness and greyness of a European winter, but he still manages to evoke the sourness of cheap wine, clatter of a train passing, the heavy perfume of the police commissioner's mistress, the unwashed sheets of cheap hotels, and the stench of hopelessness at the end of the last staircase. I am a bit bored with the conceit of the Brasserie Heininger, site of the assassination of the infamous Bulgarian waiter, and purveyor of huge trays of shimmering seafood on cracked ice...as well as home to numerous ticklish encounters between predators and prey of all sorts. But I may only be bored because I've eaten there too many times and need a change before heading back for more. (I am reminded each time of the real Brasserie Bofinger, just off the Bastile -- which, like the Heininger, is a great place if you haven't been there too many times recently.) All in all, a wonderful book, further evidence of a substantial and still evolving talent -- perhaps even his best yet. But, if you are just starting out with Furst, don't start with this one. Start at the beginning (Night Soldiers) and judge his progress for yourself.
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Summary: atmospheric, enthralling & politically intriging
Review: Furst's descriptive writting is great - his evocation of Paris and eastern Europe at the beginning of WWII(1938-1939) is gripping. The shawdowy characters from all strata of society and the minor but dangerous tasks of intrige and salvation are compelling. I could not put this book down and it lingers in my mind.
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Summary: "Kingdom of Shadows" is no "Hungarian Rhapsody"
Review: Hanging over Paris--nay, all of Europe in l938-39 like a Spectre--is the visage (and vandalism) of Adolph Hitler. However, as we well know, this was no mirage and eventually the Nazis were goose-stepping their way down the boulevards of The City of Light. Thus, with this somber--and agreeably frightening--spirit enveloping the continent, Alan Furst's "Kingdom of Shadows" mesmerizes its readers and we wait for the action to play out. Of course, we know the historical outcome, but Furst is able to paint an atmosphere that is both real and surreal. The Nazis are coming, the Nazis are coming! Furst's central character forty-ish Nicholas Morath loves Paris, where he's been living for some time now as a (not "an") Hungarian expatriot (which translates, in those days, as an aristocrat!). Indeed, a bon vivant in his own right, Nicholas' life even borders on the boring, despite the prestigious life style he enjoys--his uncle is a count; he moves in and out of Parisian high life with the greatest of ease. But he's not French. He's Hungarian and the winds of war certainly are undeniable. He also is privy to the covert Nazi political machinations and, like Cassandra, knows the future only too well. Thus, he is enlisted by his uncle to "help the cause" and he goes about with the energy of a true patriot.Furst treats us to a geography lesson as well,as Nicholas hops, skips, and jumps his way across the path of the German war machine, from Paris to Budapest to Bratislava to Antwerp,and so on in a gallant effort to save his own country. The atmosphere Furst creates works well with the geography of the land, the political climate of the time, and the naivete of much of the "modern world." This is not to say that "Kingdom of Shadows" is dull reading--far from it. The author has no difficulty in catching--and holding--the reader's undivided attention. His dramatic pacing, his power of description and episode--all blend into an excellent read, one that, due to its historical implications, certainly cannot contain a "and they lived happily ever after" ending. We know what Hitler did in l939 and that he continued in like manner for a few more years. Furst doesn't take us past 1939. Yet, we know, of course. This is an excellent read--not just for students of history, but for anyone who delights in being caught up in a plausible--yet exciting--storyline.
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