Short Story Wednesday: ''Citadel" by Stephen Hunter

  

Almost exactly two years ago I did a Short Story Wednesday post on The Big Book of Espionage, edited by Otto Penzler. I read two stories in the book and enjoyed them both. Since then I haven't read another story in the book. This week I returned to the anthology and read three additional stories.

This time, the stories I read were set in the years leading up to and during World War II. The first two stories I read were "The Army of the Shadows" by Eric Ambler and "The Courier" by Dan Fesperman. These were both very good stories by authors I have read and enjoyed. But my favorite read was a novella, first published as a part of the Bibliomystery Series by The Mysterious Bookshop in 2015.

''Citadel" by Stephen Hunter

This story is a good deal longer than the other stories I have read in this book. In this anthology, with larger pages formatted with two columns, the story is about 44 pages long. In the paperback edition published by The Mysterious Bookshop, it is 147 pages (per Goodreads).

The story opens with a Lysander [a Westland Lysander, an aircraft known for its short-field performance, good for clandestine missions] taking off from somewhere in the UK; the objective is to land in occupied France just long enough to deliver a spy to a small village not too far from Paris. 

From that point the story goes back and forth between the planning for the mission to France, the explanation for the mission, the drop-off in France, and the complicated execution of the mission. The main character is Basil St. Florian, who has carried out other missions in the past. There is plenty of time spent revealing the background of the character, and fleshing out the German soldiers and officers that he has to deal with along the way. 

I enjoyed this story. Generally I prefer Cold War spy fiction, but I have read all kinds. This one kept me entertained and intrigued. I know very little about this author, but I liked his writing and I will look into his other books.

I first learned about The Big Book of Espionage at George Kelley's blog. George gives a good overview of what the book has to offer and lists all the stories and authors, so be sure to check out his post.

The book has four sections with a total of 55 stories: The Great War (19); World War II (6); Other Terrors, Other Battles (19); and The Cold War (11). The book is large format with over 800 pages. Some of the authors are surprising, at least to me (Sara Paretsky, Erle Stanley Gardner, Brendan DuBois).