What do You think about Dark Voyage (2005)?
Maybe this is my favorite Furst novel because it was my first, or maybe because it's so different from his others (which I also love) in that instead of alleyways, hotel rooms, train cars, and secret cafes, the main action takes place on a freight ship pulled into the war first under the guise of espionage and later by direct conflict. Rather than a single man against the world, this book has more of an "Us versus Them" feel to it with a ship symbolic of the allied powers facing Nazi Germany, including Polish engineers, Dutch sailors, seamen and soldiers from Spain, Greece, even Germany, a radioman from Egypt, a Jewish doctor, secreted passengers from Russia and beyond. I love how so many characters are given special little spotlights throughout. This book is almost more nautical adventure during WWII than espionage, but there are enough of each to keep a reader happy. Most of all, this one always felt fun to me, while others had the potential to fall into melancholy, despair, and loneliness, the crew in this book always had each other even in their most desperate moments. I'm sure I'll re-read this one every few years.
—James
I listened to this book on Audible.this is the story of the Noordendam, a Dutch freighter under the command of Captain Eric DeHaan. she sails for the Intelligence Division of the British Royal Navy, and she will load detection equipment for a clandestine operation on the Swedish coast–a secret mission, a dark voyage. the British Royal Navy is commandeering all sorts of foreign ships as they have lost many in the first year of WWII.This is a quick read, one of Alan Furst's shortest, i believe. While i didn't find it one of his better ones, i still really enjoyed it. I learned quite a bit about sea journeys and living on a ship, as well as the appeal of it. The beginning was confusing to me and i had to start it more than once as i found my attention wandering, but the last 45 minutes of it made it worth it.I want to mention the name of the reader was Graeme Malcom, and I think he is the best reader I've listened to. I have begun to look him up to find other books because he just gets into the story, the characters and the whole atmosphere of the book.
—Pat Haber
Still good, but maybe my diet has been too heavily weighed toward Furst's spy thrillers recently. The formula is formulaic, even if it is a good formula.'Dark Voyage' differs from Furst's other World War II espionage novels I've read so far in that there is an absence of eastern European intrigue. Somehow a merchant seaman from the Netherlands doesn't quite have the pizzazz of other Furst protagonists. Captain Eric DeHaan is a stolid burgher type and the attempts to spice up his love life are misbegotten. That said, 'Dark Voyage' features some great nail-biting sequences as DeHaan's tramp steamer is enlisted by the British, shifts in and out of disguise sailing as a counterfeit Spanish freighter, and wends its way out of the Mediterranean and and through German mine fields in the North Sea. Furst really makes you aware of the scope and geography of World War II, with a rich sense of the history before it.
—Lars Guthrie
