Blood of Victory is the seventh novel in the Night Soldiers series by author Alan Furst.
In Blood of Victory, a Russian writer named I. A. (Ilya) Serebin becomes embroiled in an ambitious British plot to deny Nazi oil (“victory blood”) flows from the fields. Romanian oil in Ploesti. “Half Russian aristocrat, half Boshevik Jew,. . . Serebin is forty-two, this is his fifth fight, he considers himself an expert at running away, hiding or not caring. . . After all, he is I. A. Serebin, formerly Hero of the Soviet Union, Second Class, now executive secretary of the International Russian Union, an organization for people based in Paris. Like so many Europeans in the early years of World War II, Serebin no longer had a permanent home. He is living in Paris when the story opens in 1940, shortly after the Nazis invaded France. But his ex’s work and desire to be tested brought him to the Balkans and to Istanbul. Here he is recruited by Janos Polyani, formerly Count Polyani, a Hungarian shadow intelligence operative in the service of the British (and a recurring character in the Night Soldiers series).

In 1940, the Balkans were in turmoil—“as always,” some might say. Serbia is about to explode — again — with pro-Nazi and Communist forces vying for dominance in a bitter political struggle. Mussolini’s legion made the mistake of invading Greece and was slowly retreating. Romania had just joined the Tripartite Pact with Germany during the ongoing civil war; The Soviets had taken over two eastern provinces, the fascist Iron Guards roaming the streets like Hitler’s brown coats, old regime loyalists fighting back, and cruel young “tourists” of Nazi Germany are moving into the country in large numbers. Turkey tries to remain neutral but is in an increasingly sensitive position as pressure mounts on all sides, from the Germans, the British and the Russians.

Control of Romania was key to Hitler’s strategy. Oil at Ploesti fueled the German war machine built by I.G. Farben couldn’t produce synthetic gasoline fast enough. The Romanian land was on the way to the upcoming Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union and Romanian divisions were needed to destroy the southernmost German group. To thwart Hitler’s plans for invasion, slow the Panzer divisions ravaging West and North Africa, and possibly delay the invasion of the Soviet Union, Britain identified the Ploesti oil fields as one of its goals. its highest priority on the continent. And Winston Churchill established the top secret Special Operations Operations (SOE) to conduct sabotage operations behind enemy lines. Ploesti was one of its first targets. Serebin was embroiled in an ambitious and high-risk plan by the SOE to disrupt oil shipments from the region up the Danube to Germany.

• Blood of Victory

• By: Alan Furst
• Narrated by: George Guidall

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