Operation Oskar

Reim #2

by Max Hertzberg

Lieutenant Reim of the Stasi is down in the dumps. Literally.Sent to Schöneiche landfill site on a punishment assignment, Reim soon discovers Soviet soldiers searching the tip for porn, Westerners smuggling cigarettes and a truck driver with something to hide.Determined to find out more, Reim is soon caught up in a case that takes him over the Berlin Wall to the capitalist West. But when the KGB and the British occupation forces in Berlin begin to take an interest, Reim has to ask whether Operation Oskar is worth risking his life for.Reim #2, the sequel to Stasi Vice - perfect for fans of David Young, Philip Kerr and Alex Gerlis

Genres: Espionage, Fiction

248 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 1, 2019

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

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining Cold War espionage thriller which moves seamlessly between the two halves of Berlin in pursuit of the resolution to Operation Oskar. Reim is growing as a character, a decidedly unpleasant character without a doubt, but that is the nature of the business no?

[Kelley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book …

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. The narrator is an East German Stasi officer. He’s caught up in some spy operation. Frankly, I didn’t quite understand what it was about. Written in the first person, the narrator is kind of funny and self-deprecating. I’ll give the book that much. Did I mention, I should have liked this book (and it’s series) …

[David C Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not so much a spy story as one about bureaucratic infighting and staying alive as Reim tres to dig himself out of trouble, twice. The problem is that it’s never clear - even at the end - what the stakes are in all the operational details - and whether such a terminal solution is actually needed for the KGB to have a free hand. Fascinating but kind of boring?

[andrew nash · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writer gets caught up in to much detail and not enough substance in action.It required the reader to be impatient for something to happen.In all it had the making of a far better story but required more poetic License.

[MRS CA THOMSON · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another outing for the cynical stasi officer.
This time he's on the receiving end of the beatings and other tactics used in undesirables.
He thinks he sees a way out but ends up in even deeper water.
This is the second outing in the series and takes us deeper into the failing state of the ddr.

[Barry Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am really warming to this character and author and thoroughly enjoyed this book. A really entertaining read with a few twists and turns that kept me intrigued right up to the end. I will definitely buy and read the rest of the books in this series.

[Benjamin Lyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Loved every minute of this book. A must read for all those that love a good spy novel with twists and turns.

[Eric Grounds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much enjoyed. Continues to look at the world through red tinted spectacles

[Pippa Harrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good follow on from Stasi Vice - realistic settings and satsifying plot.

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't finish. Got halfway thru and nothing much was happening.

[Ron Welton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, in this second book of a series, Reim finds himself to be an abettor of a superior's nefarious inter-agency machinations. Reim whose last sub-rosa involvement cost him a brutal beating, prison time and assignment to landfill duty, has little leeway when he is squeezed between KGB Major Pozdniakov and Major Blecher of the GDR Stasi both running off-the-record operations for their personal benefit. Readers should not look to Reim as an estimable operative. He is again cheating, betraying, and conniving ruthlessly to succeed to satisfy his own self-interests. The quality of the writing plus the interesting attention to details by Author, Max Hertzberg, prompts me to think this one of the best series/dollar offered by Amazon.