Furst's plot has become so frayed its threads are in tatters. Characters appear; characters disappear. People get into scrapes and incredibly get out of them because the author needs to spin out the tale to its inevitable end after a decent number of pages. There's clumsy context, obvious plot turns and a final escape that requires Gestapo officers who can't follow footprints in the snow. Not recommended. ( )

Alan Furst is an accomplished writer in the war/spy genre, and I have always had a good time reading his books. This one is very good. ( )

It's Alan Furst, it's WWII, it's Paris, the central character is an detective novelist who's attracted to the Resistance, The Germans are evil incarnate, there's women, there's ways to get involved. The historical details are always there. This has lots of geography including U-boat bases, escape routes, canals, trains and Spain. Cars with wood burning engines on their roofs appear at several times. It's a quick read, only 200 pages but a good way to get a little diversion. ( )

Occupied Paris by Alan Furst reads more like the skeleton of a novel than a completed work. At almost every turn, the reader finds something that needs more explanation, more detail or more development. The plot is old and fmiliar and its stock design shows through all the more because to the sparse handling of the entire story line and its set of characters.
Furst has written a number of first rate WW II spy-suspense novels and that were riveting. Why would he allow his reputation to be besmerched by writing something like this?
While the entirety of the novel disappoints, there are three signifanctly important things that are particularly weak.
First, the recruitment of undercover agents is done too easily. This really needed to be fleshed out to establish the danger and intrigue of the entire plot.
Second, along the same lines, in this book, agents make contact with other agents too easily. In a time in which no one was to be trusted and everything and everyone was suspect, the contact between one agent and another needed to be filled with suspicions, security checks and nervousness. Too little of that is conveyed in this novel.
Finally, the overall sense of suspense and tension in a novel like this depends on the suspense built up in each of its tense episodes. It this novel, those episodes generally conclude too quickly, just at the points when the tension was only beginning to rise.
Each of these complaints contributes to my earlier observation: this feels like a novel the author grew tired of or didn't care about.
It also feels like the last novel of Furst's that I will spend money on. ( )

Good but not Furst at his best. ( )