Dark Star by Alan Furst

I don’t recall every reading a spy story from the point of view of a Russian agent before and during World War II. This is what makes this novel by  Alan Furst unique and quite interesting. It does seem logical that the various Russian spy agencies would be very concerned about Hitler’s rise to power. The main protagonist is a Russian journalist Nanzsura who in order to survive himself gets drawn deep and deeper into the intricacies of being  a full fledged undercover spy. The novel is well written and provides an exciting pace with secret meetings, elaborate techniques of passing information, the requisite beautiful women, double agents, murder, secret codes and whatever else you would imagine should be in a story about this subject. It also is filled with many Russian names of people, streets and other named locations  as well as ample mention of Russian authors and specific  events that happened in Russia at various times that  are difficult to follow by a non student of Russian history and culture. I would imagine the story would be more enjoyable if the reader had a better familiarity with all these names and events.