Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Dark Voyage
    Dark Voyage
    Dark Voyage
    Audiobook9 hours

    Dark Voyage

    Written by Alan Furst

    Narrated by George Guidall

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    May, 1941. At four in the morning, a rust-streaked tramp freighter streams up the Tagus River to dock at the port of Lisbon. She is the Santa Rosa; she flies the flag of neutral Spain and is in Lisbon to load cork oak, tinned sardines, and drums of cooking oil bound for the Baltic port of Malmo. Only she is not the Santa Rosa, she is the Noordendam, a Dutch freighter that 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. Here is an epic tale of war and espionage, of spies and fugitives, of love in secret hotel rooms, of courage in the face of impossible odds.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJan 4, 2011
    ISBN9781442342484
    Dark Voyage
    Author

    Alan Furst

    Alan Furst is widely recognized as the master of the historical spy novel. He is the author of Night Soldiers, Dark Star, The Polish Officer, The World at Night, Red Gold, Kingdom of Shadows, Blood of Victory, and Dark Voyage. Born in New York, he has lived for long periods in France, especially Paris. He now lives on Long Island, New York. Visit the author's website at AlanFurst.net.

    More audiobooks from Alan Furst

    Related to Dark Voyage

    Related audiobooks

    Thrillers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Name’s Bond…

      Jan 28, 2021

      The Name’s Bond…
      3 min read

    • Article

      Bleeping Frustration

      Sep 8, 2023

      Bleeping Frustration
      2 min read

    • Article

      Customs-errs

      Jan 23, 2020

      There has been a common theory, during our palmy years as part of Europe, that British boats come and go as we please. Now that the Continent looks like being cut off again, it is time to break out some new old notions. The Q flag, long used as a han

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Two Argonnes

      Feb 23, 2018

      The Two Argonnes
      24 min read

    • Article

      Navigating On The Eve Of War

      Aug 15, 2019

      THE CRUISE OF NAROMIS: AUGUST IN THE BALTIC 1939 G.A.Jones Published Golden Duck, 2016, £8.99 George Jones was 21 years old and working in Birmingham when he volunteered for the RNVSR. On 1 August 1939 he was approached by a previously unknown member

      4 min read

    • Article

      Modern Fairy Tale

      May 20, 2018

      Modern Fairy Tale
      4 min read

    • Article

      Shattered Dreams

      Aug 30, 2019

      Raivavae (pronounced reh-vah-VYE) is one of the Austral Islands, part of French Polynesia, and it’s one of our favourite lesser-known stops. High and lush, it has an encircling reef that provides multiple safe anchorages, friendly people and low-key

      6 min read

    • Article

      Route For Victory

      Sep 3, 2019

      Route For Victory
      7 min read

    • Article

      Robert Thicknesse on Opera

      Apr 29, 2021

      HOW DID A NATION as doughy and uncouth as the English ever produce the world’s greatest body of poetry? It winds foreigners up almost as much as our habit of conducting seminars in international trade with the help of a Maxim gun, and is especially g

      3 min read

    • Article

      Drinking In The Art

      Jul 1, 2020

      Drinking In The Art
      5 min read

    • Article

      Lamport Hall

      Mar 7, 2024

      Lamport Hall
      6 min read

    • Article

      A New Beginning

      May 27, 2021

      THE JOURNEYING MOON Shortly after the war I married and tried to settle down to a life in London. Like most of my generation, though, I was infected by restlessness. Early in our lives we had been given a taste for the world of action, and too much a

      4 min read

    • Article

      Paris Was Yesterday

      Mar 10, 2021

      THE lane between the farm and the village was still half underwater, so my husband, jabbed weeks ago, insisted on driving me to the village hall in his pickup truck. We loaded up like an old couple going on a day trip to the seaside, me with a Thermo

      4 min read

    • Article

      Vivat Latin!*

      Oct 19, 2022

      Vivat Latin!*
      4 min read

    • Article

      Spotlight On The Black Country

      Sep 28, 2023

      “BUT LET ME SAY BEFORE IT has to go,” proclaimed Wystan Auden, “it’s the most lovely country that I know.” Which part of England was he describing? Full marks for “the Black Country”. Brought up in Solihull, on the bear-and-ragged-staff side of the s

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Pre-loved Treasure House

      Oct 14, 2019

      A Pre-loved Treasure House
      9 min read

    • Article

      Skeleton Crew

      Nov 6, 2020

      Skeleton Crew
      6 min read

    • Article

      Skeleton Crew

      Nov 6, 2020

      Skeleton Crew
      6 min read

    • Article

      Between Sea And Sky

      Mar 24, 2021

      Between Sea And Sky
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Dark Voyage

    4/5

    260 ratings22 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      A wonderfully intense story, romantic in its plot and the motives of the characters yet full of real life descriptions of the big WW II setting and many small details. I love it!
    • 3/5
      Not bad spy and ship story. Ending seemed abrupt though.
    • 4/5
      In May, 1941, a creaky old cargo ship, the Santa Rosa, ties up in the port of Lisbon to load cork, canned goods, and cooking oil bound for the port of Malmo on the Baltic Sea. But the Santa Rosa is really the Dutch ship Noordendam, and her captain Eric DeHaan, has been commissioned by the Dutch government in exile to work with the British secret service.DeHaan is the typical Furst hero - a world weary msn of middle age who nonetheless, is a dedicated anti-fascist and not only brave, but also compassionate, especially towards his motley international crew who are all fugitives from something or other. Furst perfectly portrays the role of the spy steamer - long periods of fairly mundane work followed by bursts of abject terror. This book will have you on the edge of your chair from beginning to end.
    • 4/5
      Furst writes immersive, atmospheric historical fiction set around the beginnings of the second World War. This one is before the United States has entered the war and the Germans have been absolutely devastating merchant ships that England depends on. Starts slow and not a page turner for quite a while but don't let that scare you off as a reader. You get some setup and background that people would decry was missing if it wasn't there. When was the last time you had dinner in Tangier?If you want a WWII espionage novel different than most, here you go. This is a seagoing one. Holland was overrun by the Germans and a Dutch merchant vessel is sometimes repainted and re-flagged to appear as a Spanish freighter. Characters come and go and I didn't quite connect to the characters as I usually do, other than the Dutch Captain who I became quite fond of as the story unfolds. I don't want to reveal important elements of the story, but I hope I meet the Captain again in a later book. I really admired him and will miss him. At the end of the novel we do not know the fate of the Captain and crew.
    • 4/5
      Alan Furst excels in writing dark, atmospheric books set in and around World War II, and Dark Voyage is an excellent example of his writing. The hero of this book is Dutch sea captain, Eric DeHaan, and he is recruited in 1941 by the Dutch Naval Intelligence. Disguising his ship as a neutral Spanish freighter, a series of missions are completed for the British Navy. Starting in the Mediterranean Sea with assisting a British commando unit in North Africa, then delivering munitions to the island of Crete, the ship is finally sent to the Baltic Ocean to rescue an assorted group of refugees.Perfectly capturing the atmosphere of the era and the nautical feel of a merchant marine ship, Dark Voyage is an expert blend of meticulous research and exciting story. From the port of Tangier to the days at sea, we are taken on an intense and richly detailed adventure. Although important history is unfolding in the background, this is a very human story of a variety of people caught up in a desperate situation. Dark Voyage has a slightly different feel from some of the other books by Alan Furst that I have read, probably because there is more action in this book. This is an espionage story with a cast of assorted Europeans pressed into service, putting their lives on the line. This was an intense, exciting read that I fully enjoyed.
    • 4/5
      A story made better by the use of humour and its unusual setting.
    • 3/5
      I hated the ending when I finished the book. And when I woke up the next morning I thought it was perfect.
    • 3/5
      It was slow getting into it, but it got very exciting at the end.
    • 4/5
      One of Furst's best. In 256 pages he managed to move around the Mediterranean and to the Baltic. Seemed real and moved quickly while the chraxcters had depth.Some of his WWII books can be slow, this wasn't one of them.
    • 4/5
      Usually, in a World War II espionage spy novel by Furst, the reader spends time with only the protagonist throughout the story; perhaps a secondary character or two also stick around for most of the book. But this time, the action focuses on Capt. Eric DeHaan of the Dutch freighter Noordendam and the ship's crew, a group that covers a number of nationalities and languages. The time is spring of 1941, and DeHaan and the Noordendam are enlisted to aid the war effort against Germany by having the ship pose as a Spanish freighter in order to engage in top secret missions, smugglers saboteurs and arms. DeHaan is a typical Furst hero, an ordinary man who, due to circumstances, finds himself in extraordinary situations, needing to rely on his intelligence and instinct for survival to complete his missions. He also needs to rely on his crew, and by the end of the book, I had grown quite fond of all of them. I don't consider Furst's novels to be pageturners, but they are compelling thanks to the realism, a product of the author's extensive research. This one is no exception.
    • 5/5
      Really enjoyed it. Not as obliquely written as some of his other stories, but still very personal and impactful. Captures nautical feeling very well.

      Started 9/30/12.
    • 3/5
      This will be my last book by Alan Furst book ... ever. I had read RED GOLD before, and it did not impress me much, but I wanted to give the author another shot. So, shoot me, I'm done with his books. It is evident that he knows his WWII history, can create a mood, and build up suspense and stage action scenes, but his characters are not made up of anything resembling real people to me. To become involved in any kind of fiction writing, one needs to give a damn about the characters, and I found few traits of humanity in them. One of these books was "blurbed" on the jacket as being sexy ... oh, come on. The "love scenes" are those old style, "he put his hand THERE, and she gave him THE LOOK," and then the train is coming out of the tunnel the next morning.Now I know more about what I like and what I don't.
    • 5/5
      Another WW2 espionage story. 1941. The captain of a Dutch merchant ship is approached and asked to assist in the war effort against Germany. His ship will be disguised as a Spanish vessel, since Spain is neutral, and it will transport material for use in the war. The Captain agrees. The main mission is to bring equipment into the Baltic Sea, to the south coast of Sweden, for intercepting radio communication.Another captivating story from Furst. I did not get into the book very strongly until the second half of the story. Not one of my favorites, but a very enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      My first Furst book (alliteration unintentional) but certainly not my last. Reputed to be the "master of the historical spy novel". This book apparently is a little unlike his others and is a different sort of spy novel. Set on a clandestine Dutch tramp steamer in the early WWII from N Africa and around ending up in the Baltic. Full of atmosphere.
    • 4/5
      This book is a little different from Furst's other books, in that it focuses more on war operations than espionage. It did an excellent job of conveying a sense of the danger the war posed, not just to the characters, but to the people of that era generally.
    • 4/5
      Dark Voyage is not Furst's best work, but my caveat is that Furst's best work is amazing, so understand that this book is pretty darn good. Furst is a master at evoking the pathos and heroism of individual during the darkest period of WWII for the Allies - the 1940-41 years. Furst's stories are valuable because they remind us that the tides of war are often turned not though the efforts of great men or climatic battles but through the decisions and sacrifices made by unknown but corageous individuals in events long bypassed and forgotten in the primary historical narrative.As with his other works, Furst weaves in characters from his other novels - some as bit players, some more sharply in focus. Dark Voyage is more brooding mood then sturm and drang, but its a welcome addition to his canon nonetheless.
    • 4/5
      Captain of a tramp steamer gets pressed into service by British Intelligence. Viggo Mortensen, what a role this would be for you.
    • 5/5
      Alan Furst's books are all set between 1935-1945. Although technically "spy" novels, Furst's novels might just as easily be considered historical fiction. Meticulous research combined with strong character development make each one of Furst's novels a great joy.
    • 3/5
      The adventure spy novels by Alan Furst are generally set in a stylish and romantic time period (WWI or WWII) and his writing reflects that. I enjoy the fact that there is a little romance, a little violence, and a little history.
    • 4/5
      Alan Furst takes his story away from his usual haunts to the deck of the Dutch tramp steamer the Noordendam and the waters of the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas. Captain E.M. DeHaan is the somewhat reluctant hero this time (in the manner of Furst's other lead characters like Jean Casson and Nicholas Morath). DeHaan and his ship are recruited by Dutch Naval intelligence and eventually become tools (not to say pawns) of British espionage on a dangerous mission that takes them from Alexandria to Finland. Another entertaining effort by Furst with fine writing, but not my favorite. Furst is the master at capturing the atmosphere of the early days of WW II (especially Paris and eastern Europe) and he's a bit 'at sea' (pardon the pun) in Dark Voyage. The bits on land in Algiers and Alexandria are first-rate. Highly readable and recommended for fans of espionage thrillers
    • 4/5
      Does thinking of a book weeks after reading bring forth strong images, an atmosphere so dense you feel as if you are inside it, a cast of characters you can see in your mind as if they are old friends you know and like? Surely such a novel is worth at least four stars, which is how I rated Dark Voyage by Alan Furst. I will be reading more of his work, because war stories interest me, and because I like the way he writes. (This review refers to the digital edition.)
    • 2/5
      Well reasearched and methodically written. However i found the pace too slow and the characters didn't interest me. Doubtful that iw ill read from this author again