“Spies of the Balkans” is about the time in between, when people like Zannis were forced to get their bearings in an increasingly hostile world and to become rescuers to those fleeing more perilous places. Ioannis Metaxas, said that “the old Europe would end when the swastika flew over the Acropolis.” The Nazi flag did not rise over the Acropolis until April 1941. Furst’s readers, this book’s larger and more important geography seems new. If shades of its personal drama are by now familiar to Mr. Furst’s view of Europe before and during World War II, given the strategic importance of Greece’s ability to resist German domination. And he is Greek, which adds a whole new perspective to Mr. But Zannis is a younger, more vigorous version of the prototype than some. Furst has written so often about such men, the intrigue that surrounds them, and their subtle, intuitive maneuvering that he risks repeating himself. Has a woman of some importance killed her husband and then insisted she’s glad he’s dead? “Naughty girl,” Zannis says, giving the Furst hero’s characteristic knowing shrug. Is a politician being blackmailed by a prostitute? Call Zannis. He heads a new department charged with handling delicate situations.
In late 1940, as “Spies of the Balkans” begins, Zannis’s specialty is discretion. The man around whom Alan Furst’s new spy novel revolves is Constantine Zannis, a highly placed police official in Salonika, Greece.
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