The soldiers of the night were a secret brotherhood: Khristo, a Bulgarian peasant; Voluta, a Pole who later emerged as a plant; Kulic, a Yugoslav; the clever Sascha Vonets; and Goldman, a Roumanian Jew. The novel describes the complex and violent way of the life of a spy and is set in Russia, 1934 - 1945. Alan Furst has published four novels - a trilogy of murder mysteries and Shadow Trade, set in New York City.