Spies of the Balkans

Salonika, 1940. To the bustle of tavernas and the smell of hashish, a secret war is taking shape. In the back rooms of barbers, envelopes change hands, and in the Club de Salonique the air is thick with whispers.

Costa Zannis is the city's dashing chief detective - a man with contacts high and low, in the Balkans and beyond. And as unknown ships and British 'travel writers' trickle through the port, he is a man very much in demand. Having helped defeat Italy in the highlands of Macedonia, Zannis returns to a city holding its breath. Mussolini's forces have retreated - for now - but German sights are fixed firmly on the region. And as the situation in Germany worsens, Zannis becomes involved in an audacious plot - smuggling Jews to Istanbul, through the back door of Europe. The British hear he can penetrate the continent's closed borders, and soon Zannis is embroiled in the resistance, and in a reckless love affair that could jeopardise everything. With a remarkable cast of operatives, SPIES OF THE BALKANS is a brilliant espionage novel from Alan Furst.

“The spy writer Alan Furst's mastery of the passions and politics of the Second World War is again in thrilling evidence here.”

Enthralling...I would recommend this novel without reservation - HERALD

Furst draws a wonderfully convincing picture of a continent on the verge of destruction' - SPECTATOR

Furst's uncanny gift for place and period lift his city, and its dubious cast of characters, well above the espionage norm - INDEPENDENT

Furst's latest excellent spy thriller - GUARDIAN

Competitors despair. Alan Furst's mastery of the espionage novel puts him beyond any would-be rival. No one does it better than Furst - LITERARY REVIEW

Alan Furst is widely recognised as the master of the historical spy novel. Now translated into eighteen languages, he is the author of novels including Mission to Paris, SPIES OF THE BALKANS - a TV Book Club choice - The Spies of Warsaw, which became a BBC mini-series starring David Tennant and The Foreign Correspondent. Born in New York, he lived for many years in Paris, and now lives on Long Island.

Salonika, 1940. To the bustle of tavernas and the smell of hashish, a secret war is taking shape. In the back rooms of barbers, envelopes change hands, and in the Club de Salonique the air is thick with whispers.Costa Zannis is the city's dashing chief detective - a man with contacts high and low, in the Balkans and beyond. And as unknown ships and British 'travel writers' trickle through the port, he is a man very much in demand. Having helped defeat Italy in the highlands of Macedonia, Zannis returns to a city holding its breath. Mussolini's forces have retreated - for now - but German sights are fixed firmly on the region. And as the situation in Germany worsens, Zannis becomes involved in an audacious plot - smuggling Jews to Istanbul, through the back door of Europe. The British hear he can penetrate the continent's closed borders, and soon Zannis is embroiled in the resistance, and in a reckless love affair that could jeopardise everything. With a remarkable cast of operatives, SPIES OF THE BALKANS is a brilliant espionage novel from Alan Furst.

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