Red Gold
By Alan Furst
1999
First Published
4.04
Average Rating
289
Number of Pages
Part of Series
If you enjoy mysteries set against the rich background of World War II Europe (Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy and the fine French series by J. Robert Janes are prime examples), you should also know about Alan Furst. He began by writing such excellent, original books as Dark Star and Night Soldiers, all set in Eastern Europe. The locale then moved to Paris for The World at Night, where we first met the enigmatic film producer and reluctant Resistance hero Jean Casson. Casson returns in fascinating form in Red Gold, washing up broke and depressed in his home city, now totally ground down by its German occupiers. Recruited by a sympathetic cop, Casson joins a group of officers working undercover inside the Vichy government to help de Gaulle. Casson's job is to convince justifiably skeptical French communists to cooperate; to do so he must organize a complicated, extremely dangerous transfer of weapons. There's nothing glamorous about the work or its result, but Furst is such a persuasive writer that we come to realize what a success it is for Casson just to stay alive. This innovative and gripping novel eloquently transports us back to a different era and a different world. —Dick Adler
Avg Rating
4.04
Number of Ratings
3,738
5 STARS
31%
4 STARS
46%
3 STARS
19%
2 STARS
3%
1 STARS
1%
goodreads
Author
Alan Furst
Author · 18 books
Alan Furst is widely recognized as the current master of the historical spy novel. Born in New York, he has lived for long periods in France, especially Paris. He now lives on Long Island. Night Soldiers novels * Night Soldiers (1988) * Dark Star (1991) * The Polish Officer (1995) * The World at Night (1996) * Red Gold (1999) * Kingdom of Shadows (2000) * Blood of Victory (2003) * Dark Voyage (2004) * The Foreign Correspondent (2006) * The Spies of Warsaw (2008) * Spies of the Balkans (2010) * Mission to Paris (2012) * Midnight in Europe (2013) * Under Occupation (2019) Stand-alone novels * Your day in the barrel (1976) * The Paris drop (1980) * The Caribbean Account (1981) * Shadow Trade (1983) For more information, see Wikipedia.
