"Dark Voyage" by Alan Furst

"Dark Voyage" by Alan Furst

"In the first nineteen months of European war, from September 1939 to March of 1941, the island nation of Britain and her allies lost, to U-boat, air, and sea attack, to mines and maritime disaster, one thousand five hundred and ninety-six merchant vessels. It was the job of the Intelligence Division of the Royal Navy to stop it, and so, on the last day of April 1941 . . ."

This is from the book's jacket. Well, this is an example of very good misleading annotation. It is indeed a spy novel, but "Dark Voyage" reaches beyond ordinary "cloak-and- dagger" staff. Alan Furst is considered to be one of the best in evoking period details and characters in his novels set in pre- and WWII Europe. In this one he shows life outside the main WWII protagonist camps - neutral ports and shipping in the Mediterranean and Baltic and everything that comes with that.
I will look for other Furst's books.