Product Description
Odessa -- city of Jewish gangsters, birthplace of Trotsky and ace spy Sidney Reilly, a mixture of chicken markets and Palladian architecture. The story begins on a Black Sea freighter in the winter of 1940. A.A. Serebin, poet and journalist, is on his way to Istanbul to effect the release of a former lover. The novel brings Serebin and his protector, police officer Ascher Levitch, into contact with a foreign espionage network centred in the Russian emigre communities of Paris, Berlin and Belgrade, as well as in Odessa itself. BLOOD OF VICTORY is a panoramic novel, moving between Istanbul, Bucharest, Paris, Sofia and the Black Sea coast, involving Turkish secret police, Russian chekhists, French aristocrats, Roumanian millionaires, Polish exiles and British spies. It is Alan Furst at his uniquely brilliant best. 'Furst's ability to recreate the terrors of espionage is matchless' -- Robert Harris 'Nothing can be like watching CASABLANCA for the first time, but Furst comes closer than anyone has in years' -- Time

Synopsis
Odessa - city of Jewish gangsters, birthplace of Trotsky and ace spy Sidney Reilly, a mixture of chicken markets and Palladian architecture. The story begins on a Black Sea freighter in the winter of 1940. A.A. Serebin, poet and journalist, is on his way to Istanbul to effect the release of a former lover. The novel brings Serebin and his protector, police officer Ascher Levitch, into contact with a foreign espionage network centred in the Russian emigre communities of Paris, Berlin and Belgrade, as well as in Odessa itself. BLOOD OF VICTORY is a panoramic novel, moving between Istanbul, Bucharest, Paris, Sofia and the Black Sea coast, involving Turkish secret police, Russian chekhists, French aristocrats, Roumanian millionaires, Polish exiles and British spies. It is Alan Furst at his uniquely brilliant best. 'Furst's ability to recreate the terrors of espionage is matchless' - Robert Harris 'Nothing can be like watching CASABLANCA for the first time, but Furst comes closer than anyone has in years' - Time

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3 Reviews 5 star:    (0) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review (3 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   5 of 5 people found the following review helpful: Strong, atmospheric thriller, 10 Mar 2003 By  A. Weston "Adrian Weston" (Brighton, UK) - See all my reviews       I enjoyed this title, although I did not think it was quite as strong as the Szara titles Night Soldiers and Dark Star, but it is still very good. What is impressive about Furst is that he has gradually built up a wholly convincing world - there are many parallels between the different novels, characters from one novel reappear as rumours or gossip in another novel. The cumulative effect of reading all his novels in sequence is very powerful. My only gripe with this new book is that some of the characters use a rather clumsy American slang, which makes some of the dialogue a bit incongruous - I know what he's trying to do, but it can be irritating to find an Eastern European undercover figure beginning his sentences with "Say..." in New York gangster mode. Still a very minor gripe in an otherwise compelling book.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   3 of 3 people found the following review helpful: Alan Furst pulls off another caper, 23 Feb 2003 By  johnnybird (Tousanne Arizona) - See all my reviews Trademark atmospherics, a loner hero with lovers in exotic towns, a carefully rendered historical setting (European Theatre 1939-41) -- all these tell us we are in the midst of another thriller by Alan Furst. This time, the references are even more oblique - tho the obligatory reference to the bullet hole in the restaurant mirror is there - and there is a fog-like uncertainty about proceedings. Our unlikely hero is a volunteer - and finds himself in harm's way in a somewhat improbable way. (Why is he there?) At the ending he fetches up not trumps but at least.... The idea is to block movement of oil from Roumania to Germany. Sabotage to the Ploesti oil fields has been tried; it failed. Now the agents who've signed on with the British come up with another scheme. They plan to obstruct river passage up the Danube. This scheme requires cooperation from long-forgotten friends, careful timing, and middle European semi-competence. Good story with a satisfying solution. Compare to "From Russia with Love" by Ian Fleming. But read the first Furst first: "Night Soldiers".  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?