Vienna Spies by Alex Gerlis
Vienna Spies engages readers from its very opening and continues to keep us riveted until the very end. Obviously, it is a story of espionage, intrigue, suspense, and danger. What makes it particularly compelling arises from its setting: Vienna, Austria.
As the novel progresses the ruthless, and violent repressive tactics of the Nazi forces controlling the city become clear in lurid detail. At the same time, it is clear the war has begun to wind down and the allied forces of the US, the UK, and the USSR each understand that their alliances will soon end. They understand that they will become rivals in attempting to control Austria after the war. The USSR will want to annex and subdue it; the other Allies will want it to be a free and sovereign nation.
Thus, the novel pits three enemies against one another, the Germans, the British/Americans, and the Soviets creating a tension which only heightens and becomes more intense as the novel progresses.
The writing is good, if not memorable, and the story is tightly controlled, full of detail yet not too much of it. Settings seem authentic and the characters feel life-like. The deprivation and desperation of the occupied nation and its citizens contrasts fully with their loyalty to the very nation which oppresses them, just as it actually did during the war.
A strength of the book is its list of characters found at the beginning of the book. This is a list that certainly comes in handy as readers see the behaviors and the motives of one character after another while trying to keep in mind which character fights for which of the antagonists.
The author, Alex Gerlis, presents characters in such a way as to make each individual, clearly delineated from other characters. Now and again, he does rely upon stereotypes in portraying some characters, particularly those which are British, but this small fault does not detract from the overall quality of the book.
The novels of Alan Furst also tell stories of espionage during WW II, and Gerlis’s works compare very favorably to those well-known novels by Furst. Those of us who enjoy WW II espionage stories will be very happy they encountered Gerlis and will want to read all of his books.
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This is essentially a good thriller, with an exciting plot. A bit confusing at times though, and I was put off by the many grammatical errors in the version I read. A thorough edit would have helped! ( )

As an espionage thriller, the characters and story were good ... even though there was some heavy duty violence (particularly towards women) ... I would still describe as gently written - there was some character development that gave clues to the humanity of the three central protagonists. As much as I liked the story, and enjoyed the characters, ultimately just found it a bit drawn out and ultimately too long. ( )

Edgar is back (I really don't like him much) in this excellent spy novel that takes place in Vienna during the forties. Not much to say in addition to my comments about the other two books in the series (only loosely can they be called a series; only in the sense some of the characters are the same.) I hope Gerlis writes more. They are quite good. ( )