Stasi Vice: An East German crime novel

Reim #1

by Max Hertzberg

Lieutenant Reim of the Stasi is keen to avoid trouble. Reim enjoys his life in East Berlin and sees no need for his days behind a desk and nights in front of the bottle to change. But when a senior officer has a messy affair, it falls to Reim to do the clearing up. It should be a straightforward job. Lean on a few people to get them to shut up. Intimidate neighbours, bribe officials and appeal to the socialist conscience of Party members. But when Reim starts his interrogations, he realises his boss is hiding more than just a lover. Lieutenant Reim begins to investigate his superior—and what he uncovers puts his own life at risk. Cracking DDR crime from the author of the East Berlin Series

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Crime

187 pages, Paperback

Published October 20, 2018

About the author

Previously an academic researcher (evaluating Stasi and SED files on opposition movements and on security on the Berlin Wall). More recently a social change trainer and facilitator.

Often to be found living in Berlin, Max is currently travelling around Eastern Europe and Germany doing research for further novels.

Reviews

[TideMark]

I very much wanted to like this novel and this author, having just spent a week visiting Berlin.
Hertzberg almost pulls it off but - as another reviewer has suggested - it’s full of cliches and it feels like it’s written by a Western author who hated East Germany. Which I think it was. The constant use of phrases and terms from every Bond and Le Carré novel becomes tiresome.

The plot is quite tricky (not as thin as the same reviewer suggests) but not strong. Although an interesting story is built up, it all snaps into place in just a few pages: with one bound Jack was free. That was disappointing.

Yet curiously, I am left wanting to follow Reim to the next story, and I’m hoping Hertzberg’s storylines develop more strongly.

If you like Le Carré, you will probably be irritated by Herzberg. If you like Ellis Peters, then you’ll probably enjoy this. If you know Berlin, the mention of places on every page will also appeal (even if you need Google Maps alongside you).

This isn’t great detective fiction but it’s not poor; Hertzberg comes close to a great read, but not close enough.

[Peter Anderson]

What a riveting read!

This was my first Max Hertzberg novel, but won’t be my last.

I find that the ending is always the part of a novel that the author seems to struggle with; not with Stasi Vice. The pace throughout the book just builds and builds, right up to the last page.

What a riveting read!

Regards,
Peter

[Phil Henrick]

The plot is flimsy, to say the least, and the characters are stereotypical. This is a book full of clichés and, when you finally finish it, you feel as if you'd like your money back.

[Jelle Tolsma]

Couldn't agree more with Phil Hendrick.
Feels almost like a waist of time.

[Kelley]

Easy-reading, entertaining East German mystery

Karl Peter Reim is the hard-boiled detective in the East German secret police, called the Stasi. He is charged (somewhat inexplicably) by his boss to find out what people are saying about an affair the boss is having. Reim reluctantly sets out on the case which is unexpectedly surprising along the way.

Reim is an well-developed complex character. Kind of an anti-hero type. He likes his job, but he’s a tough guy who likes “leaning” on people to get them to talk. He likes cultivating contacts, which means blackmailing them to get info. He’s not a nice guy. No surprise he has a disastrous marriage and doesn’t seem too happy on a personal level. Yet his job in the Stasi makes him tick.

Increasingly, I enjoy this genre of East European mysteries, and this one fits the type well. Hertzberg delivers and easy-reading, entertaining yarn. I’ll continue to follow Reim’s exploits.

[Stephen F. Mills]

If you enjoy Deutschland 83/86 chances are you will take to this.

While Deutschland 83/86 were often engaged overseas and in West Germany this focuses on more local East German matters, but still exploring a system the reader knows is doomed but the participants do not (bar the end of D86). But throughout it is the vagaries of the human condition that prevail. I kept thinking of the Berlin trilogy Game, Set and Match, happening, mostly, but metres away across the “anti-fascist protection barrier”. Many of the same attitudes towards the system, superiors and the East German public also reminded me of the opening chapters of Fatherland, albeit the same city if the Nazis had remained in power. If such matters interest you read Stasi Vice.

[MRS CA THOMSON]

It is a very short novel but the tension builds constantly.
We see life through the eyes of a stasi officer. He is trying to sort out a mess for his boss but who is fooling who? He hopes to play people off to give him an edge but finds it's him who has been played.
The writing style means you only find things out when the detective does. There is a lot of internal monologue.
For a first novel it grabbed my attention and I will read more.

[Barry Palmer]

I didn't know what to make of this book at first, I felt as though it wasn't in the same league as David Young's series of crime books set in East Germany which had a strong Stasi theme throughout. The main character reminded me of Michael Caine but as the story progressed I really got into the plot and characters and found it a very good easy read. I will certainly be reading the rest of the books in this series.

[Jonathan Pedlar]

A limp story partly salvaged by basis within East Germany

Rather casual plot with underformed characters. Too much emphasis on details of travel. There is a twist, but it neither surprised nor excited me.

[Osvaldo Querin]

Very good slow start which slowly unravels towards an interesting climax

The books starts slowly and with twists and turns the stasi detective slowly figures out what is happening around him. Interesting read!

[Rolf Grafwallner]

Well researched and breezy read

Liked character development and plot twists. Need to have background knowledge of Stasi inner workings. Enjoyed detailed description of daily life in the GDR

[Lysergius]

Interesting take on the crime novel. This one set in East Germany prior to the fall of the regime. Great plot with a surprising twist at the end.

[Gregg]

Really atmospheric read. Well developed characters and a quality story with layers of interest and intrigue.

Just bought the next two in the series.

[Kate Tompkins]

Fresh Voice- this guy can write.

A very well-done novel. I will definitely read the others in the series and recommend these books to all who like a sharp voice and twisted mystery.

[David C Ward]

Pretty good; 3.5 stars. Another in the several police series in which a reasonably honest cop works in a dictatorship (eg Kerr’s Bernie Gunther books). Something tricky is going on in the STASI and Reim starts pulling on strings, finding his boss playing both sides of the street. One narrative problem is that the GDR is so grey and bureaucratic that there’s a lot of dealing with files and the procedures for getting anything done. The ending comes out of left field and the business of the fallen envelope is too lucky.

[David Lowther]

Stasi Vice is a decent thriller set in East Berlin 1983. Reim (the hero - main character) sets off on what can only be described as a 'Cook's tour' of the city on a mysterious mission ordered by his boss, a Stasi major.
It's fairly pedestrian for most of the time with much repetition but, as the end approaches, it becomes quite interesting and the climax is fairly exciting. Enough, it seems, to persuade me to read the next in the series.

David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil, Liberating Belsen, Two Families at War and the Summer of '39, all published by Sacristy Press

[Rob Bevan]

I read this book because I like Berlin having visited many times and thoroughly enjoyed all the Bernie Gunter novels, Volker Kutscher novels featuring Gereon Rath and David Young's books about the Stasi. It's an odd book like nothing I have read before. The basic plot is fair enough but it is a short novel with very little in the way of characterisation. Max Hertzberg obviously knows a lot about the Stazi, I would like to have had a bit more detail regarding the people appearing in the novel. I think the Glossary at the end was probably the most interesting part.

[Edward Messinger]

I rated this book the same as Mr. David Lowther (see below) for much the same reasons he did. The subject matter is interesting, and the descriptions of life in East Berlin (GDR) gives the reader a pretty dim view of communist socialism. I can't say I want to spend any more time with 2nd Lt Reim, but I might come back to book 2. For right now-- one and done!

[Kim]

2.75, rounded up I guess.

It was OK - a bit rough around the edges and read like a noir film. Not bad, but not great. I originally had my eye on this series because I like historical fiction and I'm fascinated by the time period and locale.

I bought the whole series so we'll see how it goes.

[Eric Grounds]

Continues the intriguing theme. I enjoy this man's writing

[Paul Grant]

Very enjoyable - looking forward to the rest of the series.
DDR crime - shades of Kerr's Gunther.
Very good!

[mary sharp]

interesting to think about the East German side of things. unfortunately a disappointment and plot is ultimately a disappointment.

[Ed Mitchell]

Fun

[Thomasso]

ridiculous story and uninteresting characters

[Paul]

This is a very valiant effort, and one feels with a little more effort to tighten up the plot this could have been much better. The attention to the smaller details of life in the GDR is a highlight.

[Emmett]

It was okay. I enjoyed all the references to East Germany. More noir than I expected. Too many loose ends, but it was a quick read.

[Dryan1066]

liked it a lot. very creative and unusual

[Ida Anak]

Difficult to follow

It was hard at the beginning with the names and the titles and the streets and locations, but I was eventually able to follow Reim in his investigation.
I liked Reim but I could tell what was happening and where the story was going. And frankly I was a bit disappointed with the ending.
Good story and good book but I will not go to #2.

[Ron Welton]

Author, Max Hertzberg, used his experience as a Stasi officer in the now defunct GDR to build a detailed and, to me, fascinating account of the travails of a young intelligence ministry officer, Hans-Peter Reim. Stasi Vice is the first of a series in which the hard-boiled, hard drinking Reim schemes, cheats and twists the bureaucratic security apparatus to satisfy an "operational objective" which he has made a personal obsession.

[Jeffrey Cavanaugh]

A taught thriller steeped in East German ambiance.