En 1939, cuando los ejércitos europeos se movilizaban para la guerra, el Servicio Secreto británico intentó impedir la exportación del petróleo rumano hacia Alemania. Fracasaron. En el otoño de 1940 volvieron a intentarlo. Serebin, periodista y escritor ruso, romántico y antihéroe, viaja a Estambul huyendo de una Europa en llamas. Allí su encuentro con la fascinante esposa de un diplomático francés, le conduce hasta el servicio de inteligencia británico. La misión encomendada, cortar el suministro de petróleo a los nazis, lleva a Serebin y a su amante francesa de los palacios de Bucarest a los prostíbulos de Izmir; de un elegante club náutico de Estambul a los muelles fluviales de Belgrado, de las pistas de patinaje de St. Moritz a las orillas del Danubio envueltas en la niebla. Todo el continente es una inmensa red de espionaje. Detrás de cada mirada, de cada gesto, de cada sorbo de café hay una trampa y Serebin tiene que evitar caer en ella, conseguir llevar a cabo su tarea, herir de algún modo el poder del ejército invasor.

Russian émigré tries to stop Roumanian oil to Germany in early years of WW II

Alan Furst is a great writer when it comes to espionage, spies, and supplying some realism to the plot. His characters are well developed and some are not predictable. He creates mystery characters in his stories and you keep reading to see who comes out on top.

The reader is first introduced to a Paris-based Russian emigrant writer, IA. Serebin who has fled Stalin’s Russia and is living in a Nazis subjugated Paris. We encounter IA. Serebin boarding a boat from Romania to Turkey and find that travel is essential for countries occupants even in dictatorship and easy passage is possible if the right papers have been obtained. This is an intellectual novel giving the reader a world of smart, reflective people living lives as refugees and activists. IA. Serebin is no friend of the Germans and is approached by a Hungarian spy, Count Polyani asking for help so Serebin agrees to participate in a mission that the British have already tried and failed. Serebin finds himself facing his fifth war, but this time he is in exile, a man without a country, and there is no army to join.

Most of the story is based in Romanian during a time of great civil uneasiness as the anti-Semitic nationalist Iron Guard seeks to take control of the country which means it places Serebin in the thick of the Romanian civil war and in the middle of the oil fields. Serebin is also convinced to help the British attempt to block the Danube River, preventing the Germans access to the Romanian oil that is the key to their remaining both militarily and industrially functional. Their plan is to disrupt the flow of the oil from the fields in Romania to Germany by sinking a group of barges at a shallow point in the Danube River to sabotage any operations the Germans might have planned.

As the battle goes on to put a stop to the Germans oil supply through spy haunts of the Balkans to a whorehouse in Izmir than on to the river docks of Belgrade to the foggy banks of the Danube River. The reader may have questions from both sides of the conspiracy, I know I did. Furst doesn’t make some of the espionage clear enough to follow but if you have read some of his other books you will learn to read between the lines. He is a great writer but his work is somewhat complex. ( )

So many current thrillers are so poorly written that I just can't stick with the plot.
Not this.
I am now an Alan Furst fan.

A slow build up and I was lost a coiple time but the ending was thrilling enough.

There are better Furst books. ( )