Armed with a propulsive and dramatic plot, Alan Furst's Under Occupation is a tight historical thriller. The 15th book in the Night Soldiers series of loosely connected spy novels opens in 1942 Nazi-occupied Paris, as a man hunted by the Gestapo hands a mysterious sketch to passerby (and French Resistance sympathizer) Paul Ricard. Once Ricard gives the drawing to the Resistance, however, he and his friend Kasia are pulled deeper and deeper into the dangerous world of the spy network.
Ultimately, Under Occupation excels in portraying a country dominated by enemy powers whose very presence is suffocating. Furst depicts the ruthlessness required to battle that enemy properly; one scene in particular viciously dramatizes this. Even the smallest characters are marked by what choices they make in the Occupation. The spies on both sides do what is necessary no matter the cost, and part of Ricard's journey involves making such unimaginable decisions. Although the Gestapo are the main "bad guys," the war itself is what hangs over all of the players and forces their hands.
Furst breaks no conventions yet crafts a crackling piece of work steeped in moral ambiguity and superb, imaginative prose. The author has succeeded in evoking a place and time that has faded into memory and breathes life into it again. No historical fiction reader can ask for more. --C.M. Crockford, freelance reviewer