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John Russell & Effi Koenen #2
Silesian Station
Summer, 1939. British journalist John Russell has just been granted American citizenship in exchange for agreeing to work for American intelligence when his girlfriend Effi is arrested by the Gestapo. Russell hoped his new nationality would let him safely stay in Berlin with Effi and his son, but now he's being blackmailed. To free Effi, he must agree to work for the Nazis. They know he has Soviet connections and want him to pass on false intelligence. Russell consents but secretly offers his services to the Soviets instead.
It's a good plan, but soon things become complicated. A Jewish girl has vanished, and Russell feels compelled to search for her. A woman from his past, a Communist, reappears, insisting he help her reconnect with the Soviets. Meanwhile, Europe lurches toward war, and he must follow the latest stories-to places where American intelligence assignments await him.
David Downing is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction for both adults and children, including Zoo Station, the first novel featuring John Russell. He lives in Guildford, England.
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First published May 1, 2008
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About the author
David Downing
123 books495 followersDavid 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.
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June 18, 2019If there is a hole in your life for a crime solving Americo-British journalist and spy having almost exciting adventures in Germany on the eve of WWII then this might be the book for you.
The big downside for me was rather than concentrating on the tension and threat of the hero's situation (he has a son and an ex-wife and a girlfriend in Berlin, he was a communist, he is a triple crossing agent and a foreign journalist, and he is nice to Jews ) the author, as you might have guessed from the preceding list, prefers to pile on one damn event after another. Unfortunately at the same the author gives his hero two explicit and one implicit 'get out of jail free' cards through his work for the different intelligence agencies, so whatever dramatic tension is piled on with the left hand is taken away by the right. There is no tension, stress, or worry if the hero is threatened with being beaten up by local Nazis you know he only has to mention his contact in the Party and he can get out of trouble.
Eventually there so much going on that it feels like reading a series of sub-plots and I wondered if there was anything to the book beyond the author's wish fulfilment of having a do-gooding character swan about pre-war Berlin and having occasional problems with the train service being interrupted by the threat of war.
The triple crossing is ridiculous. The reader really has to believe that organisations devoted to professional suspicion and security don't bother to check on even the most dubiously induced agents even when then run into trouble in unexpected places. Really with so many hostile intelligence agencies investing their interests in one man the book should have developed into a farce or a shoot out (or maybe even a farcical shoot out). But they seem content for their man to go unobserved and unchecked even as he bobs up in trouble and needing their help in various places where he is not even meant to be.
The crime solving is no less ridiculous, I believe even Superman restricted his anti-Nazi activities to the USA, but here the hero, despite everything else that he is doing, has time to save kidnapped Jews from white-slaving Nazis. Actually lets not exaggerate, a minor issue like that is just an extracurricular activity for our hero. But it's the kind of story that a different kind of author could have spun out into a book of its own.
Worst of all the hero isn't cynical enough. There is a serious plot detour in which the hero realises that stories of Poles beating up Germans along the border were just invented as propaganda! What cads and bounders! Who ever would have thought it, that the Nazis of all people might have just made up such a story! This kind of thing would have been have been better wrapped up in the narrative by having a brief bar room conversation amongst the foreign press corps over a beer or three.
Still a readable enough book for a journey or a rainy day.
The big downside for me was rather than concentrating on the tension and threat of the hero's situation (he has a son and an ex-wife and a girlfriend in Berlin, he was a communist, he is a triple crossing agent and a foreign journalist, and he is nice to Jews ) the author, as you might have guessed from the preceding list, prefers to pile on one damn event after another. Unfortunately at the same the author gives his hero two explicit and one implicit 'get out of jail free' cards through his work for the different intelligence agencies, so whatever dramatic tension is piled on with the left hand is taken away by the right. There is no tension, stress, or worry if the hero is threatened with being beaten up by local Nazis you know he only has to mention his contact in the Party and he can get out of trouble.
Eventually there so much going on that it feels like reading a series of sub-plots and I wondered if there was anything to the book beyond the author's wish fulfilment of having a do-gooding character swan about pre-war Berlin and having occasional problems with the train service being interrupted by the threat of war.
The triple crossing is ridiculous. The reader really has to believe that organisations devoted to professional suspicion and security don't bother to check on even the most dubiously induced agents even when then run into trouble in unexpected places. Really with so many hostile intelligence agencies investing their interests in one man the book should have developed into a farce or a shoot out (or maybe even a farcical shoot out). But they seem content for their man to go unobserved and unchecked even as he bobs up in trouble and needing their help in various places where he is not even meant to be.
The crime solving is no less ridiculous, I believe even Superman restricted his anti-Nazi activities to the USA, but here the hero, despite everything else that he is doing, has time to save kidnapped Jews from white-slaving Nazis. Actually lets not exaggerate, a minor issue like that is just an extracurricular activity for our hero. But it's the kind of story that a different kind of author could have spun out into a book of its own.
Worst of all the hero isn't cynical enough. There is a serious plot detour in which the hero realises that stories of Poles beating up Germans along the border were just invented as propaganda! What cads and bounders! Who ever would have thought it, that the Nazis of all people might have just made up such a story! This kind of thing would have been have been better wrapped up in the narrative by having a brief bar room conversation amongst the foreign press corps over a beer or three.
Still a readable enough book for a journey or a rainy day.
February 12, 2018
The second in the series and a really good story, though how John Russell knows which side he is working for beats me, you have got to have your wits about you with this book, it is at times pretty complicated and Russell stretches himself pretty thin! I liked it.
April 2, 2022
This is the second book in David Downing's pre- and trans-WWII spy series set in Berlin, fronted by his everyman-Brit hero John Russell. I read and liked the first, Zoo Station, some time ago, but didn't got to this installment until now for no particularly good reason (other than too many other books to read).
Like Zoo Station, Russell is the thing that sets this story apart for me. He's an average bright bloke who's forced by circumstances to balance his day job (journalist for various British and American papers) with his unintended side hustle as an asset for a steadily mounting number of intelligence agencies at play in the beating heart of the looming Nazi nightmare. Unlike most mystery/spy/thriller protagonists, he's not Superman, he has to at least pretend to work for a living, and he can maintain adult relationships with other normal humans. He gets on well with his German ex-wife, loves and worries about his young son, and genuinely likes his film-actress girlfriend Effie even when she's wearing clothes. All this is pretty refreshing after a steady diet of addicted/depressed/violent/haunted he-man heroes and earns the book a lot of my tolerance.
Which, unfortunately, it needs this time. Russell ends up working for not one, not two, but three of those aforementioned intelligence agencies. There's a reasonably solid reason for him to sign up with each one -- conviction, fear, backside-covering -- but that's a lot of balls to keep in the air. When you pile on Russell's on-off investigation into the disappearance of a Jewish Polish girl who was supposed to work for one of his friends, you end up with a lot of plot mechanics that don't always mesh nicely. Other reviewers have likened the result to a pack of subplots in search of a main storyline, which isn't an unreasonable assessment.
As in the first book, Downing leads us through a lively and well-realized pre-war Berlin that seems lived-in and real. The hotels, flats, back alleys, and warehouses are atmospheric and easy to visualize. A recurring subplot of Effie doing hack work in a string of saccharine Nazi potboilers is a diverting way to show us how the Germans were being prepared for the upcoming war (ironically, much the same way Vladimir Putin prepared the Russians for their latest war). Downing only occasionally falls victim to the street-names-as-travelogue trap that other writers of historicals blunder into from time to time.
Still...the over-busy plot and increasingly baroque complications make this story more of a chore to get through than was Zoo Station. Russell should've wised up following his previous adventures, but hasn't. His spooky employers should be vetting their employees better, but aren't. He also has yet to run across any dyed-in-the-wool Nazis, something I complained about with the previous book and also in Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series. The Nazi cause never would've gotten off the ground if nobody believed in it. Yes, it would be hard to portray a genuine racist-fascist-nationalist in a way that wouldn't turn readers' stomachs, but can someone actually try?
Silesian Station is an entertaining-but-flawed follow-up to a well-crafted and engaging series debut. Its overstuffed plot suffers from not having a clear throughline, though the individual strands can be effective in isolation. I'm disappointed; I wanted to like this more than I did, which could explain why it took me so long to get around to reviewing it. The normal-guy protagonist is still easy to relate to and makes the story still worth the effort. But I hope that book #3 will be a better read so the series can live up to its potential.
Like Zoo Station, Russell is the thing that sets this story apart for me. He's an average bright bloke who's forced by circumstances to balance his day job (journalist for various British and American papers) with his unintended side hustle as an asset for a steadily mounting number of intelligence agencies at play in the beating heart of the looming Nazi nightmare. Unlike most mystery/spy/thriller protagonists, he's not Superman, he has to at least pretend to work for a living, and he can maintain adult relationships with other normal humans. He gets on well with his German ex-wife, loves and worries about his young son, and genuinely likes his film-actress girlfriend Effie even when she's wearing clothes. All this is pretty refreshing after a steady diet of addicted/depressed/violent/haunted he-man heroes and earns the book a lot of my tolerance.
Which, unfortunately, it needs this time. Russell ends up working for not one, not two, but three of those aforementioned intelligence agencies. There's a reasonably solid reason for him to sign up with each one -- conviction, fear, backside-covering -- but that's a lot of balls to keep in the air. When you pile on Russell's on-off investigation into the disappearance of a Jewish Polish girl who was supposed to work for one of his friends, you end up with a lot of plot mechanics that don't always mesh nicely. Other reviewers have likened the result to a pack of subplots in search of a main storyline, which isn't an unreasonable assessment.
As in the first book, Downing leads us through a lively and well-realized pre-war Berlin that seems lived-in and real. The hotels, flats, back alleys, and warehouses are atmospheric and easy to visualize. A recurring subplot of Effie doing hack work in a string of saccharine Nazi potboilers is a diverting way to show us how the Germans were being prepared for the upcoming war (ironically, much the same way Vladimir Putin prepared the Russians for their latest war). Downing only occasionally falls victim to the street-names-as-travelogue trap that other writers of historicals blunder into from time to time.
Still...the over-busy plot and increasingly baroque complications make this story more of a chore to get through than was Zoo Station. Russell should've wised up following his previous adventures, but hasn't. His spooky employers should be vetting their employees better, but aren't. He also has yet to run across any dyed-in-the-wool Nazis, something I complained about with the previous book and also in Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series. The Nazi cause never would've gotten off the ground if nobody believed in it. Yes, it would be hard to portray a genuine racist-fascist-nationalist in a way that wouldn't turn readers' stomachs, but can someone actually try?
Silesian Station is an entertaining-but-flawed follow-up to a well-crafted and engaging series debut. Its overstuffed plot suffers from not having a clear throughline, though the individual strands can be effective in isolation. I'm disappointed; I wanted to like this more than I did, which could explain why it took me so long to get around to reviewing it. The normal-guy protagonist is still easy to relate to and makes the story still worth the effort. But I hope that book #3 will be a better read so the series can live up to its potential.
December 4, 2013
A lot of train rides. A lot of tram rides. Much coffee. Many rolls. Many cafes. Streets walked. Alleys run. Newspapers rolled, tossed, folded. Hotels checked out. Hotels checked into. Hotels full. Hotels overrun with Nazis.
And at the end, almost tossed in as an afterthought is a night time maneuver with almost a hint of suspense.
Through it all, our here -- Russell -- would appear to be THE indispensable man, the man all sides (German, American, British, Russian, Resistance) recruit and use with utter cluelessness about his role in the operations of others.
Berlin is on the brink of war, and there is the well described sense of ominous danger throughout which made Zoo Station such a good goodread. Not as thoroughly and complellingly conveyed in this book, but still there.
Out of curiosity what Berlin was like in the height of the war, I will dive into Stettin Station, but Downing does need to come through with a little more than showing off the hours spent poring over Baedekkers from the 30s to make me go much further in this series.
And at the end, almost tossed in as an afterthought is a night time maneuver with almost a hint of suspense.
Through it all, our here -- Russell -- would appear to be THE indispensable man, the man all sides (German, American, British, Russian, Resistance) recruit and use with utter cluelessness about his role in the operations of others.
Berlin is on the brink of war, and there is the well described sense of ominous danger throughout which made Zoo Station such a good goodread. Not as thoroughly and complellingly conveyed in this book, but still there.
Out of curiosity what Berlin was like in the height of the war, I will dive into Stettin Station, but Downing does need to come through with a little more than showing off the hours spent poring over Baedekkers from the 30s to make me go much further in this series.
October 26, 2018
A good addition to a series I will continue with...
But the story was sort of flat. I love the characters - sometimes if they're good, they're enough to keep me committed to a writer, series or book. And the complex, involved, dangerous world they're all living in is also very well done.
John Russell is an American journalist living in Germany write at the cusp of WW2. He has a former wife and son - both German - and a new love, a young actress, Effie, who's forced to take parts in pro-Nazi, shmaltzy romantic dramas. As for Russell...
He's asked (forced) to spy for the Nazis, and then the Soviets, and back and forth it goes. Where are his real loyalties? He's often in the middle of things, as well as on the hunt for a young Jewish girl who traveled from Silesia to Berlin, because, as her parents believed, it would be 'safer' in the big city. Odd how hindsight is so hard to swallow.
There are pogroms, of course, the looting of Jewish properties, the disappearance of Jewish families as they immigrate, or try to. This novel occurs right at the very beginning of that horror, the wholesale removal and murder of the hundreds of thousands (millions!) of Jews living in Germany and the countries the Nazi stronghold will eventually invade and appropriate.
There's also Poland, existing in a kind of no man's land, waiting and praying if Nazi Germany moves against them, someone will come to their aid. The Soviets? No, the Polish hate them also as much as they do the Germans. It's also odd to hear characters praying that the Americans will 'do something,' and as we know, they (we) did - but too late for so many.
It's a HUGE, difficult, perilous background which Mr. Downing paints here, and all with meticulous detail as to the geography, politics, personalities and intricacies of a world running headlong into a wall. My mother once told me she knew very little of what was going on 'over there,' as it simply wasn't in her world view at the time. (She was a teenager.) But it all exploded after Pearl Harbor and therefore...
Therefore this is a good book, a bit bogged down with detail, a little short on plot, but as a possible lead-up to more to come with Mr. Russell, his son and girlfriend, and all those he cares about on both sides of the conflict.
Four stars.
But the story was sort of flat. I love the characters - sometimes if they're good, they're enough to keep me committed to a writer, series or book. And the complex, involved, dangerous world they're all living in is also very well done.
John Russell is an American journalist living in Germany write at the cusp of WW2. He has a former wife and son - both German - and a new love, a young actress, Effie, who's forced to take parts in pro-Nazi, shmaltzy romantic dramas. As for Russell...
He's asked (forced) to spy for the Nazis, and then the Soviets, and back and forth it goes. Where are his real loyalties? He's often in the middle of things, as well as on the hunt for a young Jewish girl who traveled from Silesia to Berlin, because, as her parents believed, it would be 'safer' in the big city. Odd how hindsight is so hard to swallow.
There are pogroms, of course, the looting of Jewish properties, the disappearance of Jewish families as they immigrate, or try to. This novel occurs right at the very beginning of that horror, the wholesale removal and murder of the hundreds of thousands (millions!) of Jews living in Germany and the countries the Nazi stronghold will eventually invade and appropriate.
There's also Poland, existing in a kind of no man's land, waiting and praying if Nazi Germany moves against them, someone will come to their aid. The Soviets? No, the Polish hate them also as much as they do the Germans. It's also odd to hear characters praying that the Americans will 'do something,' and as we know, they (we) did - but too late for so many.
It's a HUGE, difficult, perilous background which Mr. Downing paints here, and all with meticulous detail as to the geography, politics, personalities and intricacies of a world running headlong into a wall. My mother once told me she knew very little of what was going on 'over there,' as it simply wasn't in her world view at the time. (She was a teenager.) But it all exploded after Pearl Harbor and therefore...
Therefore this is a good book, a bit bogged down with detail, a little short on plot, but as a possible lead-up to more to come with Mr. Russell, his son and girlfriend, and all those he cares about on both sides of the conflict.
Four stars.
October 16, 2025
Fairly tedious, only 303 pages but felt like 400, probably because the print was so tiny. Dropped from 3 stars to 2 because the author doesn't know that SANK is the simple past tense of SINK, not SUNK.
March 9, 2021
When you end up spying for the Americans, Russiansand Nazis life becomes difficult. Journalist John Russell is back from the US with an American passport and threading his way through the various groups and keeping tabs on which way countries are going to jump is complicated, not to say dangerous. Effi is in danger. Then there’s the missing girl ...
November 28, 2021
Downing's second John Russell reads much like his first, an excellently researched late 1930s thriller that almost feels like a travelogue to a time and place that no longer exists. That makes for an atmospheric read but not a very gripping one. To put it bluntly, Russell feels more like a tourist in his own world. As the specter of war hangs over Europe in the summer of 1939, Russell seems to do little except try to play the Nazis and the Soviets off against each other, a job that feels much easier than it really could have been. Not having read the other four books in this series, I hope Downing took some tips from the works of John le Carre and Alan Furst; that could improve this decent but nothing special series.
August 9, 2025
As much as I love this series (and I really do), and I love David Downing's accurate descriptions- I'll have to put this series aside for awhile. As superb as it is, it feels like I'm reading a documentary about this day and age, with a very alarming accuracy. And I'm not just talking about the hate and racism- it's also the stupidity, ignorance and and people's paralysis to do something to stop the madness. 90 years apart, but it's same story, the same madness, the same inhumanity. We truly have learned absolutely nothing as a species.
I'm glad I read the series 9 years ago, but right now, it just feels too much.
I'm glad I read the series 9 years ago, but right now, it just feels too much.
February 9, 2021
Second in the series, enjoyed the first, the second and the third is on hold at library. Very clever main character with connections to Nazi Germany, Russia, England and the U.S. He's a freelance journalist being recruited by all to gather information . Has a nice mix of expionage, history, geography and cool automobiles which make me grateful for internet access.
September 29, 2014
Downing begins his second novel in the John Russell series with a girl being sent by her Jewish farm family to Berlin where they expect things to be better. She arrives at the Berlin Siliesian Station (now known as Berlin Ostbahnhof, it was a main station in East Berlin) expecting to be picked up by her uncle, but instead is met by someone in his stead. She disappears.
John Russell is on his way back from the United States where he has been visiting with his son, Paul, and obtaining an American passport (it’s complicated, but explained in Zoo Station, the first volume - they should be read in order). While on the return voyage he receives a telegram informing him that his girlfriend, Effie, has been arrested by the Gestapo. Russell realizes it’s because they want something from him.
John’s ex-brother-in-law, Tom, whom he trusts implicitly, reveals the niece of one of his Jewish employees has disappeared and her uncle had been killed by storm-trooper thugs shortly before she was due to arrive. Russell, having written a story about private detectives a year before promises to find one who might be able to look for the girl. The detective is shut down by the police so Russell embarks on his own search.
And so begins another in this excellent series, part spy novel, part mystery. Downing’s choice of a journalist as the protagonist is an excellent vehicle for portraying the events the events surrounding Germany’s annexation of Czechoslovakia and the provocations leading up to the invasion of Poland. Russell observes all these events “from the ground” so-to-speak which gives them an intricacy and immediacy not often present in a history book, which by its very nature, has to take a broader view. Yet at the same time, Downing provides that as well through the interactions of Russell with the Gestapo and the British foreign office.
Downing must have done an immense amount of research to get the details of ordinary life down so well. (Remember Pathe newsreels?) An excellent series.
John Russell is on his way back from the United States where he has been visiting with his son, Paul, and obtaining an American passport (it’s complicated, but explained in Zoo Station, the first volume - they should be read in order). While on the return voyage he receives a telegram informing him that his girlfriend, Effie, has been arrested by the Gestapo. Russell realizes it’s because they want something from him.
John’s ex-brother-in-law, Tom, whom he trusts implicitly, reveals the niece of one of his Jewish employees has disappeared and her uncle had been killed by storm-trooper thugs shortly before she was due to arrive. Russell, having written a story about private detectives a year before promises to find one who might be able to look for the girl. The detective is shut down by the police so Russell embarks on his own search.
And so begins another in this excellent series, part spy novel, part mystery. Downing’s choice of a journalist as the protagonist is an excellent vehicle for portraying the events the events surrounding Germany’s annexation of Czechoslovakia and the provocations leading up to the invasion of Poland. Russell observes all these events “from the ground” so-to-speak which gives them an intricacy and immediacy not often present in a history book, which by its very nature, has to take a broader view. Yet at the same time, Downing provides that as well through the interactions of Russell with the Gestapo and the British foreign office.
Downing must have done an immense amount of research to get the details of ordinary life down so well. (Remember Pathe newsreels?) An excellent series.
August 19, 2015
A slow burner is this, takes around a 1/3 of the book to get really going. Much of the pre-amble has our hero’s life laid out in full with his relationship with his son, girlfriend & ex-wife explored & fleshed out (maybe a little too much tbh) along with the landscape of Nazi Germany circa post Czech capitulation & with Danzig/polish corridor situation flaring up (you soon work out it’s the summer of 39). Our hero as again is working for all sides, the SD, the NKVD & now American intelligence. There is also a story (mystery) about a missing Jewish girl from the country who travels to Berlin at the beginning of the book, every so oft we go back to see what’s going on there whilst our hero interacts with all his spymasters & the Czech resistance. It plods a bit at times in the first third & I didn’t find myself pulled forward as much as the first in the series which was a grand read.
What I liked was reading about his travels & did feel myself immersed in the history of the era with visits to Czech Republic (Prague) & Slovakia (Bratislava) as well as Poland (Warsaw & border town skirmishes) & Russia itself (Moscow) for the Molotov/Ribbentrop accord for the Eastern European correspondent come SD Agent, Come NKVD agent come American Intelligence come boyfriend of a famous German actress. The story (mystery) really does play second fiddle as the reader is immersed in the political landscape of the times as the hero mingles with all the various agencies along with the small folk that he encounters along the way.
A good read for someone who follows the era from a historical fiction stance, a lot less for a mystery/crime reader. A solid 3.5 – 4 stars.
What I liked was reading about his travels & did feel myself immersed in the history of the era with visits to Czech Republic (Prague) & Slovakia (Bratislava) as well as Poland (Warsaw & border town skirmishes) & Russia itself (Moscow) for the Molotov/Ribbentrop accord for the Eastern European correspondent come SD Agent, Come NKVD agent come American Intelligence come boyfriend of a famous German actress. The story (mystery) really does play second fiddle as the reader is immersed in the political landscape of the times as the hero mingles with all the various agencies along with the small folk that he encounters along the way.
A good read for someone who follows the era from a historical fiction stance, a lot less for a mystery/crime reader. A solid 3.5 – 4 stars.
June 26, 2020
This is the second book in the series featuring freelance journalist John Russell who has lived in Germany for over a decade. A British national with an English father and an American mother, Russel has chosen to live in Berlin where he has close ties to people he cares about, his German born son Paul and his girlfriend Effi. At this time in history Nazi Germany is everything its enemies say about it, but Russell considers Berlin his home and he wants to stay.
It is July 1939 and Russell and his son are returning from a month’s vacation in American. He has recently obtained an American passport in exchange for doing some intelligence work for the Americans. His American citizenship will allow him to stay in Germany if war breaks out between Britain and Germany. He has also been hired on salary to do work for a San Francisco newspaper that wants a contact in Europe as tensions increase and war appears imminent. As a freelance journalist Russell is in a good position to do intelligence work and he has been pursued by the United States, Germany and Russia to work for them in exchange for “favors”. The Brits have pretty much stayed out of the game and given up on him. But Russell is careful about accepting the work offered to him, determined to honour his loyalty to those countries in which he is a citizen or with whom he feels allied. It is difficult to meet all his obligations but it is the cost he must pay to stay in the country.
Russell is heading back to Berlin with his son Paul after a month’s vacation in the United States when he receives an anxious message from Effi’s sister Zarah telling him that her sister has been arrested by the Gestapo. Russell wonders what Effi may have said or done. She looks Jewish, tends to be outspoken and may have said something to provoke the Nazis who decided it was enough to lock her up in one of their jail cells. He worries they may have hurt her but she is only upset and very scared. She was arrested because another actress who had competed for a role with Effi and lost, told the Gestapo that Effi had mocked Hitler in a joke she told at a gathering. This proved to be exactly what they wanted, an excuse to arrest her and give them a way to pressure Russell to do intelligence work for them. They promise to release her if he will agree to pass on false intelligence to the Soviets. If he refuses they threaten to send Effi to a concentration camp. Russell knows they could also put pressure on his son Paul.
The Gestapo have suspicious about Russell’s role in helping some Jewish friends get out of the country earlier in the year and there was also the appearance of a damaging report written by an American journalist about Hitler’s plans to get rid of disabled children that was leaked to the American press. They have no solid evidence against him but Russell does not want them digging deeper to see what they can find. He knows he would be safer if he left Germany, but that would mean he would be leaving alone. They would never let Effi out of the country and Ilse, his ex-wife and Paul’s mother, would never allow her son to leave. He knows as well that if he returned to Britain or the States, they would still have power over him. They could still demand he do something for them and threaten his Berlin family if he refused.
Effi’s short imprisonment by the Nazis and their threat to send her to a concentration camp has rattled her. Although she has never been interested in politics, she knows what is going on around her is wrong and feels she can no longer stand by and do nothing. She is sick of hearing about plans to kill children because they are handicapped, about locking people up who don’t agree with Hitler and about the torturing of Jews. She begins to get involved with an anti-resistance group and learns the art of disguise, thinking it might come in handy for future work. The most recent turn of events has dramatically changed life for both of them.
At the same time as Russell is doing his job as a journalist and carrying out his obligations in intelligence work, he also tries to help his former brother-in-law Thomas who employs a lot of Jews at his printing factory. Thomas has hired a young girl named Miriam, the niece of one of the men working for him. She was on her way to Berlin from her rural home and her Uncle was to meet her at the train station but was intercepted by the “brownshirts”, beaten and died in hospital. Miriam has never arrived and Thomas, who cannot get the girl out of his mind, asks for Russell’s help in finding her.
As Berlin hovers on the edge of war, Russel travels to Prague, Warsaw and Russia, covering the potential for war as a journalist but also carrying out covert intelligence work for the Germans, the Americans and the Russians. He is trying to work out a way to escape the country with both Effi and Paul, knowing only the Soviets could help him with such a plan but they might do it in exchange for doing something for them. Meanwhile he helps get information valuable to the German war machine out of the country and assists a young woman married to an SS German General who finds herself in grave danger.
This novel continues to explore the character of a man motivated by his desire to do the right thing while surrounded on all sides by potential violence, secret police and ordinary people just trying to live their lives. It is a time of tension everywhere, when words carelessly dropped and overheard may end with someone in a jail cell, interrogated, beaten and never seen again. It is getting more and more difficult to get around the city as military transports have priority on the supply of petrol and use of the rail lines, checkpoints are set-up everywhere, the Nazi’s patrol the streets and on the spot searches have become a routine everyone has been forced to accept. Meanwhile a silent web of resistance workers carry out whatever covert activities they can manage to put a stop to Hitler’s horror.
The strength of the series is the picture Downing paints of Berlin and the world around it, a city on the brink of war. He describes the fear, the open and increasing prosecution of the Jews and the never ending questions ordinary citizens keep asking each other: What Hitler will do next and when war will be declared. It is all in the small but important details he gives of how people try to hang on amid the madness that unfolds around them. Meanwhile Russell struggles to keep turning out stories for the press, trying to filter out the facts from the Reich’s daily issue of propaganda that journalists receive from Hitler’s minions. He tries to write articles in a way that encourages readers to see what lies between the lines, to get a sense of what is really going on, all the while dancing around the censors who must approve every article he writes. But so far it seems countries are leaving Europe alone to work out their own problems. No one wants to go to war.
These are the last few weeks of peace as plots and counterplots are planned and carried out. There is a large cast of characters all with foreign names which are a challenge to keep straight. Somehow however, Downing ties it all together cleverly leading readers to want to pick up the next addition to the series as the rope around everyone’s neck seems to be tightening quickly.
It is July 1939 and Russell and his son are returning from a month’s vacation in American. He has recently obtained an American passport in exchange for doing some intelligence work for the Americans. His American citizenship will allow him to stay in Germany if war breaks out between Britain and Germany. He has also been hired on salary to do work for a San Francisco newspaper that wants a contact in Europe as tensions increase and war appears imminent. As a freelance journalist Russell is in a good position to do intelligence work and he has been pursued by the United States, Germany and Russia to work for them in exchange for “favors”. The Brits have pretty much stayed out of the game and given up on him. But Russell is careful about accepting the work offered to him, determined to honour his loyalty to those countries in which he is a citizen or with whom he feels allied. It is difficult to meet all his obligations but it is the cost he must pay to stay in the country.
Russell is heading back to Berlin with his son Paul after a month’s vacation in the United States when he receives an anxious message from Effi’s sister Zarah telling him that her sister has been arrested by the Gestapo. Russell wonders what Effi may have said or done. She looks Jewish, tends to be outspoken and may have said something to provoke the Nazis who decided it was enough to lock her up in one of their jail cells. He worries they may have hurt her but she is only upset and very scared. She was arrested because another actress who had competed for a role with Effi and lost, told the Gestapo that Effi had mocked Hitler in a joke she told at a gathering. This proved to be exactly what they wanted, an excuse to arrest her and give them a way to pressure Russell to do intelligence work for them. They promise to release her if he will agree to pass on false intelligence to the Soviets. If he refuses they threaten to send Effi to a concentration camp. Russell knows they could also put pressure on his son Paul.
The Gestapo have suspicious about Russell’s role in helping some Jewish friends get out of the country earlier in the year and there was also the appearance of a damaging report written by an American journalist about Hitler’s plans to get rid of disabled children that was leaked to the American press. They have no solid evidence against him but Russell does not want them digging deeper to see what they can find. He knows he would be safer if he left Germany, but that would mean he would be leaving alone. They would never let Effi out of the country and Ilse, his ex-wife and Paul’s mother, would never allow her son to leave. He knows as well that if he returned to Britain or the States, they would still have power over him. They could still demand he do something for them and threaten his Berlin family if he refused.
Effi’s short imprisonment by the Nazis and their threat to send her to a concentration camp has rattled her. Although she has never been interested in politics, she knows what is going on around her is wrong and feels she can no longer stand by and do nothing. She is sick of hearing about plans to kill children because they are handicapped, about locking people up who don’t agree with Hitler and about the torturing of Jews. She begins to get involved with an anti-resistance group and learns the art of disguise, thinking it might come in handy for future work. The most recent turn of events has dramatically changed life for both of them.
At the same time as Russell is doing his job as a journalist and carrying out his obligations in intelligence work, he also tries to help his former brother-in-law Thomas who employs a lot of Jews at his printing factory. Thomas has hired a young girl named Miriam, the niece of one of the men working for him. She was on her way to Berlin from her rural home and her Uncle was to meet her at the train station but was intercepted by the “brownshirts”, beaten and died in hospital. Miriam has never arrived and Thomas, who cannot get the girl out of his mind, asks for Russell’s help in finding her.
As Berlin hovers on the edge of war, Russel travels to Prague, Warsaw and Russia, covering the potential for war as a journalist but also carrying out covert intelligence work for the Germans, the Americans and the Russians. He is trying to work out a way to escape the country with both Effi and Paul, knowing only the Soviets could help him with such a plan but they might do it in exchange for doing something for them. Meanwhile he helps get information valuable to the German war machine out of the country and assists a young woman married to an SS German General who finds herself in grave danger.
This novel continues to explore the character of a man motivated by his desire to do the right thing while surrounded on all sides by potential violence, secret police and ordinary people just trying to live their lives. It is a time of tension everywhere, when words carelessly dropped and overheard may end with someone in a jail cell, interrogated, beaten and never seen again. It is getting more and more difficult to get around the city as military transports have priority on the supply of petrol and use of the rail lines, checkpoints are set-up everywhere, the Nazi’s patrol the streets and on the spot searches have become a routine everyone has been forced to accept. Meanwhile a silent web of resistance workers carry out whatever covert activities they can manage to put a stop to Hitler’s horror.
The strength of the series is the picture Downing paints of Berlin and the world around it, a city on the brink of war. He describes the fear, the open and increasing prosecution of the Jews and the never ending questions ordinary citizens keep asking each other: What Hitler will do next and when war will be declared. It is all in the small but important details he gives of how people try to hang on amid the madness that unfolds around them. Meanwhile Russell struggles to keep turning out stories for the press, trying to filter out the facts from the Reich’s daily issue of propaganda that journalists receive from Hitler’s minions. He tries to write articles in a way that encourages readers to see what lies between the lines, to get a sense of what is really going on, all the while dancing around the censors who must approve every article he writes. But so far it seems countries are leaving Europe alone to work out their own problems. No one wants to go to war.
These are the last few weeks of peace as plots and counterplots are planned and carried out. There is a large cast of characters all with foreign names which are a challenge to keep straight. Somehow however, Downing ties it all together cleverly leading readers to want to pick up the next addition to the series as the rope around everyone’s neck seems to be tightening quickly.
July 11, 2012
There’s a lot to like about Silesian Station and it’s a step up from the first book in the series, Zoo Station. The characterization is richer and more keenly observed, and the plotting is excellent, interweaving a number of strands that collectively keep the dramatic tension high throughout the story. The historical context is well realised, both in relation to the larger macro-politics across the continent in the lead up to the start of hostilities, but also the everyday realities with respect to the diverse circumstances and views of people within communities, and how politics and communal relations played out in different locales (Berlin, the Polish border, Moscow, Prague and so on). Whilst the prose is quite workman-like, Downing nevertheless captures the sights and sounds, the cinema and cafes, the streets and apartment living, the fashions and pastimes, and the hopes and fears of people in difficult situations. The result is a rich, rewarding and entertaining read that steadily builds in tension and is satisfyingly resolved.
January 9, 2018
It's the summer of 1939 and John Russell, a British journalist cum American, is on his way back to Berlin from a visit to New York with his German son Paul. A day out from Germany, John receives a telegram that his German actress girlfriend has been arrested by the Gestapo and they want to see him the moment he returns. The journalist quickly finds himself again entangled in Nazi and Soviet schemes while trying to save innocents, but this time tensions are running high. Stalin needs to buy time as he solidifies his hold on the Russian Soviet, and the Nazis need to find an excuse to recapture the territories lost at the conclusion of WW I. John's travels take him through multiple German, Polish, Czech and Russian cities and the Silesian countryside trying to solve more than one missing persons investigation while playing the apprentice spy. A thrilling story that will keep drawing your eyes to the page as he plays a dangerous double agent game so that he can remain in Germany with his son.
David Downing, author of Silesian Station, has done an astounding job capturing and integrating daily life of pre-war Europe into this story. There is nothing better than a fictional story so well researched that you learn something of the times in which it is set. Mr. Downing incorporates not only the physical settings of various European cities during 1939 he also discusses the cold war taking place between Germany and Poland capturing the affect of building tensions between these two countries on its citizens. Incorporated into the story is the fight between post offices over the correct spelling of city names in the western regions of Poland - Germany refusing to send mail to Poland unless city names utilized their German spelling and Poland returning letters to sender if the city names didn't use the Polish spelling. Another detailed example of history embedded in the story is the on-going propaganda war the Nazis carried out against the Poles to ready the German people, and to a lesser extent the rest of Europe, for war. In the mean time, the citizen Pole seemed to be totally oblivious, or perhaps intentionally ignoring, all the hyperbole being created by the Goebbels media machine - the routine fake news stories of raids and beatings of ethnic Germans by Poles published in Nazi "news" rags, the loud speaker announcements made in cities of national events, etc. A fantastic espionage story with a great historical backdrop of mid 20th Century Europe. This second installment of the John Russell story, the cold war turned WW2 hot, is worth the read.
David Downing, author of Silesian Station, has done an astounding job capturing and integrating daily life of pre-war Europe into this story. There is nothing better than a fictional story so well researched that you learn something of the times in which it is set. Mr. Downing incorporates not only the physical settings of various European cities during 1939 he also discusses the cold war taking place between Germany and Poland capturing the affect of building tensions between these two countries on its citizens. Incorporated into the story is the fight between post offices over the correct spelling of city names in the western regions of Poland - Germany refusing to send mail to Poland unless city names utilized their German spelling and Poland returning letters to sender if the city names didn't use the Polish spelling. Another detailed example of history embedded in the story is the on-going propaganda war the Nazis carried out against the Poles to ready the German people, and to a lesser extent the rest of Europe, for war. In the mean time, the citizen Pole seemed to be totally oblivious, or perhaps intentionally ignoring, all the hyperbole being created by the Goebbels media machine - the routine fake news stories of raids and beatings of ethnic Germans by Poles published in Nazi "news" rags, the loud speaker announcements made in cities of national events, etc. A fantastic espionage story with a great historical backdrop of mid 20th Century Europe. This second installment of the John Russell story, the cold war turned WW2 hot, is worth the read.
September 16, 2012
Second in this espionage series. This installment opens with John Russell and his son Paul returning to Germany from a visit to John's mother in America. As the book begins we get a firsthand look at Czechoslovakia after the Nazis have marched in, via John and his many travels (and travails) as a quadruple agent--having worked out separate arrangements with the governments of Germany, Russia, England, and the United States to let him remain in Nazi Germany with the cover (and practice) of being an international news reporter. This allows him to be with the two people he holds dearest: Effi, his beautiful German actress girlfriend, and Paul, his teenage son, raised in Deutschland and a member of the Hitler Youth.
The book traces this time of movement to world war right up to Stalin's pact with Hitler and their subsequent preparation to divvy up Poland. Its theme is to convey this rising anxiety, so many throughout Europe seeing the inevitable war coming, not wanting it, but having no power to change the acceleration in that direction. Still, our noble hero demonstrates how to play competing bureacracies off against each other and simultaneously save some individual lives from horrors the Nazis had in store for them.
Although I very much appreciate when such novels give us authentic slices of everyday life in these other places and times, and this one does that well, so much of the book is spent recounting travels, with constant details of what is ordered in every cafe and which towns each train passes through (and how late that particular train is), that such information became a bit tedious. Perhaps that was intended, to juxtapose such idlings or waitings with the inevitable coming horror Russell clearly recognized and will certainly confront in later installments. There was not a lot of character development here, though--people stayed pretty much the way I envisioned them if I had encountered them in the first book of the series.
The book traces this time of movement to world war right up to Stalin's pact with Hitler and their subsequent preparation to divvy up Poland. Its theme is to convey this rising anxiety, so many throughout Europe seeing the inevitable war coming, not wanting it, but having no power to change the acceleration in that direction. Still, our noble hero demonstrates how to play competing bureacracies off against each other and simultaneously save some individual lives from horrors the Nazis had in store for them.
Although I very much appreciate when such novels give us authentic slices of everyday life in these other places and times, and this one does that well, so much of the book is spent recounting travels, with constant details of what is ordered in every cafe and which towns each train passes through (and how late that particular train is), that such information became a bit tedious. Perhaps that was intended, to juxtapose such idlings or waitings with the inevitable coming horror Russell clearly recognized and will certainly confront in later installments. There was not a lot of character development here, though--people stayed pretty much the way I envisioned them if I had encountered them in the first book of the series.
April 16, 2012
I'm loving this series. This second installment doesn't have quite the heart-stopping suspense of the first one, but that is compensated for by the fact that you now know the relationships of some of the main characters.
In this book, John Russell, the British-American journalist in Berlin on the eve of WWII, is waiting to see if and when Hitler will invade Poland (it's a good reminder that what we now see as a fait accompli was agonizingly uncertain at the time). The Gestapo have arrested and briefly held his girlfriend, Effi, and he soon finds out that the price for leaving her alone is for him to agree to pass false intelligence to the Soviets. As a former Communist, Russell of course tells his Soviet contacts about the Nazi plans, and unbeknownst to either of them, the Americans have prevailed on him to do some intelligence work for them.
In the midst of all this, he does still try to function as an actual journalist, and finds himself wrapped up in more than one subplot. The driving thread of this novel is the disappearance of a young Jewish woman who comes from her country farmstead to Berlin to work and never makes it to her job, which happens to be with Russell's compassionate ex-brother in law. In the meantime, he has to worry what will happen to his son Paul, who is almost old enough to be soldier material, and he is trying to help a woman who once was married to a Jew but has since started living with an SS officer.
What I like about this series besides the fine writing and pacing is that Downing shows us just how complex relationships both personal and political can be. Black and white soon become shades of grey, just as in real life.
In this book, John Russell, the British-American journalist in Berlin on the eve of WWII, is waiting to see if and when Hitler will invade Poland (it's a good reminder that what we now see as a fait accompli was agonizingly uncertain at the time). The Gestapo have arrested and briefly held his girlfriend, Effi, and he soon finds out that the price for leaving her alone is for him to agree to pass false intelligence to the Soviets. As a former Communist, Russell of course tells his Soviet contacts about the Nazi plans, and unbeknownst to either of them, the Americans have prevailed on him to do some intelligence work for them.
In the midst of all this, he does still try to function as an actual journalist, and finds himself wrapped up in more than one subplot. The driving thread of this novel is the disappearance of a young Jewish woman who comes from her country farmstead to Berlin to work and never makes it to her job, which happens to be with Russell's compassionate ex-brother in law. In the meantime, he has to worry what will happen to his son Paul, who is almost old enough to be soldier material, and he is trying to help a woman who once was married to a Jew but has since started living with an SS officer.
What I like about this series besides the fine writing and pacing is that Downing shows us just how complex relationships both personal and political can be. Black and white soon become shades of grey, just as in real life.
October 1, 2011
This second book in the ‘station’ series by David Downing was just as riveting as the first one I read. These books are really more espionage than they are mystery or crime…and even then they are much more about the events that took place before start of WWI….and now into WWI. In many ways they remind me of Alan Furst’s books, at least the first one I read by Furst.
The main protagonist is John Russell, a British free-lance journalist with an American passport living in Berlin so that he can stay close to his son Paul and his girlfriend Effi. Russell is forced to play more than one side in this book…for the Americans, the Germans, and the Soviets. Although the plots in this book are both political and espionage related, Downing focuses even more on the personal life of Russell and how he deals with the changing events in Europe. It’s this mixture that makes this a great book to read.
The main protagonist is John Russell, a British free-lance journalist with an American passport living in Berlin so that he can stay close to his son Paul and his girlfriend Effi. Russell is forced to play more than one side in this book…for the Americans, the Germans, and the Soviets. Although the plots in this book are both political and espionage related, Downing focuses even more on the personal life of Russell and how he deals with the changing events in Europe. It’s this mixture that makes this a great book to read.
March 22, 2015
More shenanigans in Hitler's Germany with John Russell. Silesian Station follows on more or less directly from Zoo Station and is similar in style and theme. Downing builds on what he laid down in the first book and continues to throw his protagonist into peril, forever at risk of discovery by the Gestapo. Russell is growing on me now and I found Silesian Station an enjoyable and easy read.
April 18, 2017
Very close to 5 stars for me - an atmospheric story as John Russell, Anglo-American journalist and accidental spy returns to Berlin in July of 1939 and finds himself dealing with 3 different intelligence agencies, an editor back in San Francisco and several plot lines - all under the shadow of an impending invasion of Poland and the promise of war to follow. Travels through Bratislava, Warsaw and Moscow are depicted in depth with a real sense of context of the war to come, the rampant anti-semitism and persecution of Jews and the dangers of the Russell's position at every turn. High quality writing throughout.
The second in the series, with more to look forward to.
The second in the series, with more to look forward to.
March 29, 2021
book 2 gets both more exciting and more grim. and outright war inches ever closer.
It is both reassuring and surreal how much normality keeps going in the face of terrible things.
It also makes me wonder about that sort of books will be written in the future when all of our current surreal and craziness is mere history. what sort of adventures will be written set in the year 2016 or 2020?
It is both reassuring and surreal how much normality keeps going in the face of terrible things.
It also makes me wonder about that sort of books will be written in the future when all of our current surreal and craziness is mere history. what sort of adventures will be written set in the year 2016 or 2020?
August 19, 2018
Second installment and second adventure with John Russell.
In some parts the reading gets slower, and more complicated too, as some paragraphs are not that linear, however the author manages to convey the ever growing struggle of a democratic man living the odds of the harshest dictatorship.
In some parts the reading gets slower, and more complicated too, as some paragraphs are not that linear, however the author manages to convey the ever growing struggle of a democratic man living the odds of the harshest dictatorship.
September 24, 2017
I love this series!
September 11, 2021
> Something else was different too, but he only realized what it was when a large sign told him that 'Prague is now driving on the right'. In more ways than one, he thought.
March 15, 2023
What a fine read! Second in the John Russell series. He's a British/American journalist living in 1939 Berlin. He doesn't want to leave as his 12 year old son lives there as well as his love, Effi, a German actress. As the nation finds itself on the cusp of war, John is in a maelstrom. He risks his freedom by aiding some Jewish friends, and the Nazis, Soviets and Americans all pressure him to spy for them. We also visit Prague and Warsaw on our adventure. So well written. We learn so much about the period and there are a couple of palpable heart pounding moments that had me on the edge of my seat. Looking forward to the third story.
December 25, 2019
Fabulous. Well written. Full of historical details and examples of real life situations. Strong recommendation.
August 27, 2013
I'm thinking it might well be possible that you either like David Downing's John Russell novels, or you don't. I don't know why, but I would imagine there isn't a half-way house here.
I do like them, very much indeed. I'll admit that, on the face of it, it sometimes feels like nothing much actually happens. But that's 'nothing much' if you are expecting a war-time, cloak and dagger, murder mystery, spy cross and double cross novel, in the vein of Len Deighton, Alistair Maclean or Douglas Reeman, perhaps.
Nothing wrong with those of course, but then a book like 'Stettin Station' (and David Downing in general), doesn't need to be one of those. It's much more than that by, on the surface at least, having much less of all that.
In 'Stettin Station' the third of the John Russell novels, we've now reached 1939 (I'm trying to read these in chronological order, I think that's probably the best way to do it). Our 'hero', our main character, guide and narrator really, John Russell, has returned from a trip to the USA and is now Central European correspondent for one or more American newspapers. Amongst other things. As we know, he has a German son, from a previous marriage, and is of English-American parentage. The Germans take advantage of his various connections, commitments and knowledge and force him into working for them - spying on the Russians. Who also get Russell to work for them, spying on the Germans. Both sides seem to know he is working for the other side. It all means, that one way or another, Russell can travel, more or less unhindered, throughout Germany and much of Eastern Europe. He sees what is happening to the eastern countries annexed by the Germans, and he gets a very good idea of what their future might be under the Nazis. In the midst of witnessing this inexorable slide into war and more, he also gets involved in trying to track down a friend's Jewish niece. Just by being a decent guy. But it leads him and girlfriend Effi, into a situation where they find they need to put their lives on the line.
How can I put it, the sense of what I get from these books? Of course, they are beautifully written, perfectly paced, full off nuance and flavour, and an absolute pleasure to read. But there's more. More subtlety. I think it is the environment around John Russell and through which he tries to weave his way, which gives the 'excitement' to his story. He is, despite all the mentions above of 'spies' and travel and so on, a reasonably ordinary man not doing a whole lot more than trying to be a decent reporter, a good father and a loving boyfriend. His being these things and being there in the middle of the build-up to the world-wide catastrophe that was the Nazis and World War II, is what makes the stories so fascinatingly un-put-downable. I think what the John Russell novels boil down to, is that they are a written 'snapshot' of this most important, traumatic time. Just being alive and in the middle and trying to find an ordinary path through, is enough to make anyone's story an incredible one. If things like this hadn't actually happened, you wouldn't believe it, if someone made it up. Incredible.
I do like them, very much indeed. I'll admit that, on the face of it, it sometimes feels like nothing much actually happens. But that's 'nothing much' if you are expecting a war-time, cloak and dagger, murder mystery, spy cross and double cross novel, in the vein of Len Deighton, Alistair Maclean or Douglas Reeman, perhaps.
Nothing wrong with those of course, but then a book like 'Stettin Station' (and David Downing in general), doesn't need to be one of those. It's much more than that by, on the surface at least, having much less of all that.
In 'Stettin Station' the third of the John Russell novels, we've now reached 1939 (I'm trying to read these in chronological order, I think that's probably the best way to do it). Our 'hero', our main character, guide and narrator really, John Russell, has returned from a trip to the USA and is now Central European correspondent for one or more American newspapers. Amongst other things. As we know, he has a German son, from a previous marriage, and is of English-American parentage. The Germans take advantage of his various connections, commitments and knowledge and force him into working for them - spying on the Russians. Who also get Russell to work for them, spying on the Germans. Both sides seem to know he is working for the other side. It all means, that one way or another, Russell can travel, more or less unhindered, throughout Germany and much of Eastern Europe. He sees what is happening to the eastern countries annexed by the Germans, and he gets a very good idea of what their future might be under the Nazis. In the midst of witnessing this inexorable slide into war and more, he also gets involved in trying to track down a friend's Jewish niece. Just by being a decent guy. But it leads him and girlfriend Effi, into a situation where they find they need to put their lives on the line.
How can I put it, the sense of what I get from these books? Of course, they are beautifully written, perfectly paced, full off nuance and flavour, and an absolute pleasure to read. But there's more. More subtlety. I think it is the environment around John Russell and through which he tries to weave his way, which gives the 'excitement' to his story. He is, despite all the mentions above of 'spies' and travel and so on, a reasonably ordinary man not doing a whole lot more than trying to be a decent reporter, a good father and a loving boyfriend. His being these things and being there in the middle of the build-up to the world-wide catastrophe that was the Nazis and World War II, is what makes the stories so fascinatingly un-put-downable. I think what the John Russell novels boil down to, is that they are a written 'snapshot' of this most important, traumatic time. Just being alive and in the middle and trying to find an ordinary path through, is enough to make anyone's story an incredible one. If things like this hadn't actually happened, you wouldn't believe it, if someone made it up. Incredible.
June 18, 2019
Barely scraped by with three stars. There wasn't much plot, and there were a lot of train stations and hotel rooms and cups of coffee in this one. There's about 10 pages of plot right at the end. About 25 other pages before that is needed to set up the end. And about 260 pages of travel brochure. (I perhaps exaggerate here, but not by much.)
Also, I was irked by the misuse of the word "latter." I know, I know; I can be a bit of a usage fiend. But "latter" is used in the case of two items: "Between the choice of no coffee and bad coffee, I chose the latter." But if you have three or more items, it's "last," not "latter:" "From among the proffered choices of tepid tea, cold coffee, and off-brand cola, I chose the last." He made this mistake--and so did his agent, editor, and copy editor--three times in this book. (That's nine mistakes--lol.) It's a little thing. And yet...it set my teeth on edge a little worse each time until the last time (not, you'll notice, the "latter time") I was growling a little.
I'll still read #3, but now with a soured attitude. That's interesting, isn't it, the way goodwill created by one book or two books in a series will last many of us through a weak one, but if there are two weak ones in a row...just nope. And so I might come back here and erase a star when I'm done with #3.
Also, I was irked by the misuse of the word "latter." I know, I know; I can be a bit of a usage fiend. But "latter" is used in the case of two items: "Between the choice of no coffee and bad coffee, I chose the latter." But if you have three or more items, it's "last," not "latter:" "From among the proffered choices of tepid tea, cold coffee, and off-brand cola, I chose the last." He made this mistake--and so did his agent, editor, and copy editor--three times in this book. (That's nine mistakes--lol.) It's a little thing. And yet...it set my teeth on edge a little worse each time until the last time (not, you'll notice, the "latter time") I was growling a little.
I'll still read #3, but now with a soured attitude. That's interesting, isn't it, the way goodwill created by one book or two books in a series will last many of us through a weak one, but if there are two weak ones in a row...just nope. And so I might come back here and erase a star when I'm done with #3.
June 16, 2016
This is the 2nd book in the John Russell, wartime thriller/ spy series. This story starts with news reporter, John Russell, returning to Germany from a trip back home to the US with his son. He finds that his girlfriend, German actress Effi, has been imprisoned by the SD, the intelligence arm of the SS, for stating insults about Hitler. In fact, the imprisonment is to goad Russell into working for the SD by providing false information to the Russians. He readily agrees in order to get Effi out. At the same time, he finds himself working for US intelligence, trying to contact potential agents for them and also, in his spare time, (that's a joke of course) trying to find a Jewish girl who had been sent to Berlin by her parents, but who has ended up missing. Action is non-stop in this thriller, much like the first and in many ways it's a bit of more of the same, but still excellent. I like how Effi plays a bigger role in this story; her incarceration, making her even more aware of the inequities of the Nazi regime. The story moves to Czechoslovakia, Poland and even Russia as Russell plays the Germans against the Russians in an effort to keep his family safe and still help those in need. Well-paced and well-written (3.5 stars)
July 23, 2014
Second John Russell novel - Berlin summer 1939, the hero is returning by ship from his summer vacation in the US with his 12 year German son Paul; he gets a telegram that his actress girlfriend has been arrested by the Gestapo on sedition charges, though the arrest is secret for now; of course that is a ploy to add pressure on John to collaborate with the Nazi's and feed disinformation to the Soviets.
Well, now as a triple spy (for the US, Nazis and USSR) his life is complicated by the mystery of the dissapearence of a Jewish girl who was coming to work for his brother in law , as well as by meeting with Jewish and leftist underground resisters
Add in trips to occupied Prague, Moscow on the verge of signing the Pact and Poland on the verge of the disaster and it's another winning novel, with same great atmosphere, detail and characters
Well, now as a triple spy (for the US, Nazis and USSR) his life is complicated by the mystery of the dissapearence of a Jewish girl who was coming to work for his brother in law , as well as by meeting with Jewish and leftist underground resisters
Add in trips to occupied Prague, Moscow on the verge of signing the Pact and Poland on the verge of the disaster and it's another winning novel, with same great atmosphere, detail and characters
Displaying 1 - 30 of 242 reviews