David Downing’s superb series of novels first appeared in 2007 with the publication of Zoo Station and I was lucky enough to get my hands on an early copy. My review of the time enthused “ A complex and edge-of the – seat thriller, think Robert Harris & Fatherland mixed with a dash of le Carre; it’s good, and there’s more to come”. I’ve had no reason to revise my opinion, through 6 novels; David Downing has evoked the feverish landscape of Germany and Europe in the Second World War period down to the last scrupulous detail.
In July 1939 Russell returns to Berlin as the newly-appointed Central European correspondent of an American newspaper.
With his communist past, German son and English-American parentage he's the perfect catch for any of Europe's warring espionage services, and none will take no for an answer.
Through the long Berlin summer, through trips to Prague, Warsaw and Moscow tracking Europe's descent into war, Russell seeks to satisfy his secret masters, protect his girlfriend Effi and his son Paul, and retain some sense of his fragile integrity. And if this wasn't difficult enough, a friend needs his help in finding the missing Jewish niece of an employee.
With a whole continent headed for self-immolation, saving just one person shouldn't be so difficult...
"Excellent... A complex and edge of the seat thriller.. Think Robert Harris and Fatherland mixed with a dash of le Carre; it's good, and there's more to come" Sue Baker, Publishing News
"An extraordinary evocation of Nazi Germany on the eve of war, the smell of cruelty seeping through the clean modern surface." C J Sansom, author of Winter in Madrid
“Stands with Alan Furst for authentic European pre-war detail and atmosphere. Berlin in the last weeks before the war is evoked with all its fearsome undercurrents - and the ending is genuinely full of tension.” Donald James, author of Mostrum
Author
About David Downing
David Downing is the author of a political thriller, two alternative histories and a number of books on military and political history and other subjects as diverse as Neil Young and Russian Football.
