Alan Furst's Dark Star. A Novel

My daughter gave me this book-used and unread by her-knowing I enjoyed spy novels and the like.

It was a stunning wake-up to the realities of "spying" in general and dispels the James Bond/Tom Clancy genre.

The book is copyrighted hardback 1991 and is his second novel. The first being "Night Soldiers". I haven't read that one yet.

In the afterward, the author states the novel was based on an interview done in Paris is April of 1937. This information came to light many years later in a debrief of a Soviet defector in the U.S.

There is zero U.S. involvement in this novel. It focuses on France, Germany, The Soviet Union and ,of course, a bit of Brit skulduggery. LOL.
The main figure is a Jewish reporter for Pravda who ends up pulled into the 'Game' and it's complexity, the purge by Stalin, Jewish response to other Jewish led purges...on and on.

It implies a wealthy Jewish group-unnamed- and it's motivations, at least in it's inception.

It is objective in the sense that none is really condemned or labeled the "Bad Guy", even Germany, other than a "fact of life".

No wonder the Euros called Americans "Naïve". LOL.

An amazing picture into pre-world war II Europe.

A little on the dark side initially, but if one pushes through, it demands an almost immediate reread.

This is both a recommendation and a query in that I would love some feedback from those that may have read this or who have knowledge of those times.

Fascinating to say the least.