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Swiss Francs Gold

Autumn 1941: In a shabby hotel off the place Clichy, the course of the war is in regards to to change. German tanks are rolling toward Moscow. Stalin has issued a decree: All partisan operatives are to strike behind enemy lines—from Kiev to Brittany. Set in the back streets of Paris and deep in occupied France, Red Gold moves with quiet menace as predators from the dark edge of war—arms dealers, lawyers, spies, and assassins—emerge from the shadows of the Parisian underworld. In their midst is Jean Casson, once a well-to-do film producer, now a target of the Gestapo living on a few francs a day. As the occupation tightens, Casson is drawn into an ill-fated mission: running guns to combat units of the French Communist Party. Reprisals are brutal. At last the real resistance has begun. Red Gold masterfully re-creates the shadow world of French resistance in the darkest days of World War II.

ReviewIf you take delight in mysteries set versus 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 will have to likewise know when it comes to Alan Furst. He started out by writing such excellent, basi 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 initial met the enigmatic film producer and reluctant Resistance hero Jean Casson.

Casson returns in arousing and attention holding form in Red Gold, washing up broke and lowspirited in his home city, now wholly ground down by it is German occupiers. Recruited by a sympathetic cop, Casson joins a group of officers working undercover inside the Vichy government to support de Gaulle. Casson's occupation is to convince justifiably skeptical French communists to cooperate; to do so he ought to coordinate a complicated, exceedingly dangerous transfer of weapons. There's not one thing glamorous regarding the work or it is 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 dissimilar era and a dissimilar world. --Dick Adler

From Publishers WeeklyFrom the atmosphere traditionalisti in his fifth novel's firstborn sentence ("Casson woke in a room in a cheap hotel and smoked his last cigarette") to the knock on the door at the denouement, Furst again proves himself the master of his chosen terrain?behind the lines of Nazi occupation in France for the duration of WWII. His former novel, The World at Night, opened in May 1940, with French film producer Jean Casson setting out to take newsreels of the defense of France's Maginot line and getting swamped in the German invasion. It is now September 1941, and Casson, broke and hiding under a untrue name, is regarding to commit entirely to the Resistance. As a man of indeterminate political affiliation, he's chosen to negotiate amidst the Resistance and the French Communists, who, with the German army on the verge of taking Moscow, have orders from Stalin to sabotage the Nazis in any way possible. The "red gold" SS looters try to steal in Russia is a metaphoric payment in blood, while in Paris informers are everyplace and collaboration is still rampant. Furst's textured plot?exhibiting shifting loyalties and betrayals; lone, often times hopeless acts of heroism; and lovers bravely parting?makes for spellbinding drama. (In one scene, a clandestine radio operator broadcasts a few moments too long, and hears soldiers' boots racing up the stairs to get him.) Furst, who deserves the comparings he's earned to Graham Greene and Eric Ambler, seems to be resolving into a franchise here, rather than reaching for the fire he caught in his third novel, The Polish Officer. Casson's story unfolds convincingly, however, and as it proceeds here to April of 1942, promises a few more sequences to come from this author's tried and true brand of masterfully elaborate espionage.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library JournalVeteran novelist Furst's second effort featuring former film producer Jean Casson is just as good as his primary (The World at Night, LJ 5/15/96) and exerts the marvelous aroused pull of a world-weary postwar French film. The time is 1941; the place, occupied Paris. Reluctantly, Casson becomes involved in the French Resistance as an intermediary amongst feuding factions of partisans. An associate exclaims, "Well, Casson, you're in luck.... You may not have found patriotism, but it appears...to have found you." Communists and loyalists jockey for vantage versus each other; no one trusts anyone. Casson is a wondrous reputation underneath pressure, outwardly cynical but intensely romantic at heart. An officer asks, "What's Casson like?" The response: "Intelligent, a good heart, a heap of professional success, a great deal of failure." Comparison with Eric Ambler and Graham Greene is inevitable. A classy thriller, strong on mood and action; highly recommended.
-?David Keymer, California State Univ., Stanislaus
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Most helpful client reviews

26 of 26 humans found the following review helpful.
Best Read In Order
By taking a rest
I read the paperback edition of this book, which lead me to read this sequel prior to reading the basi book. There is no emplacement on the outside of the book that explains this is a sequel. The positive news is that the story is self-contained and while it references the past it does not rely on it for this book to read well. I did read the primary book, "The World At Night", and except for the dates the book is still gratifying if partially compromised by having been read out of sequence. I don't see why a simple notation could not have identified the book as a sequel.

Alan Furst writes when it comes to a narrow by eventful time from 1933 to 1945. His books are meticulously precise to the point they would pass inspection by some readers of history. The author takes an strange step at the end of his books by sharing with readers his origins for the novels he creates. This is not done in an academic bibliography or a blizzard of footnotes, rather he writes conversationally regarding what he reads, and what he proposes as reading for those who are interested.

Our former film producer Jean Casson has transformed from a man without a positive idea of what he supports, to a man who now seems to get in the midst of everything. He likewise has lost any illusion of safety as he was taken to visit the Gestapo, and their interest in him has not declined.

Casson's relationships with actors and other help personnel for his pre-war movies brought him in contact with a potpourri of political agendas that were of little interest to him at the time, and that now have become relationships that may get a person killed for real or imagined activities. His uncertainty when it comes to what constituted honorary conduct, and what commitment means in wartime were all explored in the original book. In this sequel the lines have at once become all to clear, even as they are vague. Is a friend's politics prior to the war a reason to help them, to look the other way, or to promise to maintain silence in return for his own safety?

In the initial book Jean made a decision that set his future decisively in one area, and as the war progresses his surroundings become all the more lethal, and the reliability of relationships all the more questionable. There seems to be no end to those who would befriend him for his help, the question likewise remains how a lot of of the same would turn him in without a moments thought.

Alan Furst once again has written a fine book, and I look forward to the final two that are to be published later this year.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
The occupation goes on
By Russell Wright
I read Red Gold just after finishing World at Night. The occupation has not yet ended at the finish of Red Gold. Casson has grown wiser and now is more dangerous as he is called upon to bestow more to the resistance. Furst does an magnificent occupation recreating the sense of desperation amidst the French. In Red Gold the Germans start out to lose numerous of the bravura that they exhibited in World at Night. The exploits of Casson and his compatriots make for a great read. The suspense is formulated in a subtle manner which prevents this book from being what I consider a page-turner. Well worth the visit.

14 of 15 humans found the following review helpful.
Furst appeals-
By A
I was so impressed with, "The World at Night," that I had to without delay read, "Red Gold." "Red Gold," unfortunately, doesn't compare with "World." I surely wish it did, because I was totally captivated by the initial installment of the Casson story. I hope Furst proceeds and follows Casson on allround the war. He's a compelling protagonist and Furst is a masterful storyteller. I've not read any person who may recreate a time and amount of time better than he can.

Furst ought to consider writing another book or two with Casson. I love this character. He is a reluctant hero. What I get enjoyment from when it comes to Furst's characters are their ambiguity, none of them are moralists.

After the introductory twenty pages of "World," I was hooked in, but I never felt that way with "Red Gold." I read it through, but never felt the book was to the full or entire extent realized. I agree with a former reviewer, who said, that Furst was going through the motions. I felt that a bit too. Having said that though, Furst is such a fine writer, that it in truth is a quibble, overall he's one of the best writing in this genre.

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