Baltic Approach: An East German Spy Novel

Reim #4

by Max Hertzberg

Dare you deceive the Stasi? When a Westerner walks into a police station and asks for a Stasi agent by name, the alarm bells start ringing in Berlin Centre.

Lieutenant Reim has the job of bringing in the West German. The trail leads north to a seaside hotel populated by spies and winter holiday makers.
But is the man Reim tracks down the one he was sent to find?

Genres: Espionage

297 pages, Paperback

Published June 26, 2020

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

[Peter Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four down and one to go!

I really enjoy these Reim series books. Max Hertzberg really understands the time, the location and most importantly the characters about which he writes.

Lieutenant Reim is an unlikely character in the grim structure of the East German ministry of State Security - the dreaded Stasi! He is a bit of a non-conformist in a rules-bound organisation.

While this is the fourth book in the Reim series it’s the second book in the Bruno trilogy.

This book will keep your attention from first page to the last page. Without giving away any spoilers, it’s hard to see where the third “Bruno” book goes; but I can’t wait to find out.

Highly recommended.

Regards,
Peter

[Dick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Baltic Approach was the fourth book I read in the series ( and hopefully not the last)
Reim the main character had me intrigued like only a few others in this type of novels could. Like the Bernie Gunther in the Kerr books. Reim is a person in a system. Good or bad it doesn't matter but one has to survive in the system. Reim does an excellent job to play the stasie narrative.
Truly enjoy the books and complements to the translator(s) very well translated

[MRS CA THOMSON · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 4th part of the story arc.
We are in the world of the ddr with the non-heroic hero Reim. He is trying to sort out a labyrinthine case to uncover a mole who may have murdered his friends. He has to deal with West German agents, the Russians, and his own comrades. Nothing is quite what it seems as our hero is played by all sides.
And I found out what tote oma is.
The end leads nicely into the fifth volume of the series - I hope.

[Pippa Harrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best one yet! This series just gets better and better - realistic, grim, dark and somehow still entertaining. Hope there's more to come!

[Ron Welton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though, Baltic Approach is the fourth iteration of 2nd Lieutenant Hans-Peter Reim's toils for the intelligence network of the GDR, for me it was the first read. I intend to read the earlier novels. Max Hertzberg's writing is solidly engrossing, clear, and takes one into the complexities of East German security and police bureaucracy of the early 80's without being didactic.
Reim is far from sentimental but has suffered sufficient emotional pain to lead him to insomnia and drink. His professional drive is more a result of a personal loss, the death of a female colleague, Code Name Sanderling, and the need to exact justice for her perceived killer, 1st Lieutenant Gerhard Sachae. Some of his actions are enabled and some are precluded by KGB Major Dmitri Alexandrovich Pozdniakov who holds a marionette-like influence over Reim.