Review of Masaryk Station by David Downing (2013, Old Street)

Berlin, 1948. John Russell is working for both the Russians and Americans, both believing he’s a double agent.  His wife, Effi, a pre-war film star is similarly caught between the movie and radio industries of the former allies.  As the Soviets close the noose around Berlin in an effort to encourage the other three Allied powers to leave, Russell seeks a way to extricate himself, along with his family and his Russian handler, Shchepkin, from his predicament before his duplicity is discovered.  However, the Americans have other plans for him, sending him to Trieste to debrief Russian defectors and help run ratlines for war criminals who oppose communists in the new Yugoslavia and Ukraine, and to Belgrade and Prague to gather intelligence.  Eventually an opportunity presents itself, a secret so potentially explosive that it will mean freedom for silence.  First though Russell has to journey into enemy territory to gather the physical evidence, then Shchepkin has to negotiate their safe passage and future, neither of which are straightforward.

Masaryk Station is the sixth and final book in the John Russell and Effi Koenen ‘station’ series, which charts the couple’s lives from 1939 to 1948, most of it spent in Berlin.  Russell, a former communist, worked as an American journalist, before becoming a full-time US and Russian double agent.  Pre-war Effi was a German movie star before joining the underground, helping to smuggle Jews out of war-torn Germany and has now resumed her career.  In this instalment they are back in Berlin with their adopted daughter, Rosa, and living close to Effi’s sister, Zarah; Russell’s German son now working in London.  Russell senses that his espionage work is becoming ever more perilous and the situation in Berlin is putting Effi under-pressure.  As with the previous books, Russell is shuttled around Europe, visiting Trieste, Belgrade, Vienna and Prague, getting into various scrapes as he looks for an escape route.  And he’s still in cahoots with Shchepkin, his Russian handler, who is also looking for a way out of Stalin’s regime. Effi meanwhile has her own, more local adventures.  As well as tell the central tale, Downing uses the narrative to set a wider context of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and East Germany after the war, the rat lines used to smuggle Croatian war criminals out of Europe, and the lead-in to the Berlin airlift.  The plot is a bit of a slow burner and relies on a couple of plot devices, though these give a glimpse into the plight of those caught behind the iron curtain and the doubts of German communists realising that the Soviets have an iron grip.  Nonetheless, it’s an interesting read, picks up pace and tension towards the end, and does a nice job of closing out what is a fine series, with two strong lead characters.

Review of Lehrter Station by David Downing (2012, Old Street)

November, 1945.  John Russell and Effi Koenen are living in London with their adopted daughter, Rosa, John’s son Paul, and Effi’s sister, Zarah.  Russell is struggling as a freelance journalist and then an old ‘friend’ Yevgeny Shchepkin of the NKVD makes contact.  He threatens to reveal how Russell helped the Russians obtain German atomic research material unless he travels to Berlin to help assess the loyalty of German Communist Party members to Moscow and to offer his services to the American intelligence.  Shchepkin has his own plan to help both him and Russell escape Moscow’s grip, which involves revealing his plan to be a double agent to the Americans.  The upshot is Russell and Effi travel back to the ruins of Berlin, intent on fulfilling their mission and trying to track down surviving friends and family.  While they try to satisfy both Soviet and American spymasters, their search for Rosa’s father brings them into contact with a black marketeer with a secret to hide and the trails set-up to take surviving Jews to Palestine. 

This fifth book in David Downing’s ‘Berlin stations’ series and it is very much a series book being mainly focused on revealing the fate of the characters from the previous four books and the city of Berlin post World War Two.  It was certainly interesting to discover who had survived and perished and to get a sense of everyday life in the ruins and the large-scale migrations occurring.  And Russell and Effi are as engaging as ever.  That said, the tale lacked impetus, pace and tension, being a rather meandering affair with a handful of intersecting threads and lacking a clear resolution, and the hold of the Soviets over Russell felt a little weak.  Overall, then, a book that felt like a bridging episode, but nonetheless a nice read.

Review of Potsdam Station by David Downing (2011, Old Street Publishing)

It’s April 1945 and three and a half years since American journalist, John Russell, fled Berlin to Sweden aided by a communist cell, leaving his partner, actress Effi Koenen, and teenage son, Paul, behind.  Russian troops are poised to take the city and Russell wants enter with them to find and protect Effi and Paul from the marauding victors, assuming they are still alive.  He travels to Moscow to try and persuade the authorities that they would benefit from a Western journalist accompanying them.  They initially decline, arresting him as a spy, but then decide to give Russell his wish as long as he carries out a mission for them - parachuting  into the edge of the devastated city with a scientist, and two NKVD minders, tasked with searching for papers related to the German atomic programme.  After surviving for so long under an assumed identity, Effi and the young orphan she’s been caring for, are hoping to see out the war, but the Gestapo seem intent on annihilating all enemies of the state before they are overthrown.  Meanwhile, Paul is fighting a desperate rear-guard action as part of the chaotic retreat to Berlin.  At eighteen he’s thoroughly disillusioned, but also desperate to avoid pointlessly sacrificing himself for a regime he despises.  Russell is not sure how he is going to locate them, especially given the bargain he’s entered into, but he feels compelled to search through the ruins and risk the desperate fighting.

The fourth book in the John Russell/Effi Koenen series, Potsdam Station is told through three points of view: Russell, Effi and Paul, Russell’s son from his first marriage.  Each new scene switches to focus on one of three.  The result is three different views on the fall of Berlin from the perspective of foreign journalist, surviving citizen, and retreating soldier.  This is one of the strengths of the tale, along with engaging prose, nice characterisation, a very vivid sense of place and geography, interesting historic detail, a cloying atmosphere, and a visceral sense of desperation as a regime collapses under a fierce onslaught.  Nonetheless, the plot is a little far-fetched, particularly the scenario of Russell persuading the Russians to get him into the city ahead of their arrival and Effi failing to maintain her cover to the final fall.  That said, despite having a pretty good sense of how the tale would end, Downing keeps the tension high throughout.  Further, the first two books in the series were set in 1939 and the third in 1941 and in some ways it’s a shame that Downing has decided to jump forward three and a half years to 1945 for the fourth as I’m sure a compelling tale could have been inserted in that timeframe.  Overall, an interesting and entertaining read, with a main plot that’s a little fanciful but a narrative that’s compelling.

Review of Stettin Station by David Downing (Old Street Publishing, 2009)

November 1941, the Wehrmacht has ground to a halt outside of Moscow and the relationship between Japan and the US is deteriorating.  John Russell, a British journalist with an American passport and long term resident of Berlin, can sense the winds of change.  He’s loathed to leave his thirteen year old son or his long term girlfriend, actress Effi Koenen, but it’s clear he needs to try and find a way to out of the country whilst remaining in contact.  One prospect is to act as a point of contact between the Americans and the Abwehr.  Another is to gather evidence of significant interest to the Allies and, in particular, the communists so that he can use their escape lines.  However, just as he’s putting both arrangements in place the Gestapo and SD re-awaken their interest in his presence and activities, potentially jeopardising his plans. 

Stettin Station is the third book in the John Russell and Effi Koenen series.  The strengths of the tale are the characterisation, sense of atmosphere and place, and the historicisation.  Russell and Koenen are well realised and rounded characters and they are accompanied by a broad spectrum of nicely penned others, including journalists, administrators, various forms of police, family, friends and other citizens.  Downing manages to nicely blend the everyday realities and complexities of living in Berlin during the war with the politics and machinations of a police state and his role as a foreign journalist.  The result is a story that captures the everydayness of getting on with lives in a state of perpetual background fear, and the tactics of surviving and resisting.  Moreover, by utilising real events and occasionally real historical characters, Downing provides a semblance of authenticity.  Where the book suffers a little is with regards to the plot.  Whilst it is an interesting story the tale seemed largely a transitory one, moving the characters into place for the next instalment rather than having its own self-contained arc and denouement.  Moreover, the ending seemed somewhat contrived and didn’t ring true to me.  Nonetheless, Stettin Station is a solid addition to a very good series and I look forward to reading the next instalment.

Review of Silesian Station by David Downing (Old Street Publishing, 2008)

July 1939 and British-born John Russell returns from a trip to the United States with his son to re-enter ‘The Cage’ of Nazi Germany.  As a foreign correspondent, Russell is aware that war is coming and the trip has provided him with an American passport that will enable him to stay living near to his son and close to his lover, the movie actress Effi Koenen, and a new job working for the San Francisco Tribune.  The passport came for the price of spying on behalf of the United States, the job on condition that he exposes the plight of Jews in German controlled Europe.  He arrives back in Berlin to find Effi in a basement cell of the Gestapo headquarters.  The price for her release is Russell working for the Nazis, offering his services to the Russians, to whom he’ll pass on disinformation.  Russell has communist leanings and on contacting the Russians offers to be a double agent.  As tension rises along the Polish border, Russell plays a dangerous game of trying to keep his three controllers, plus his employer, content without revealing his duplicity, travelling to Prague, Breslau, Warsaw, Bratislava, and Moscow, notionally to cover unfolding events.  To make life even more difficult, he has agreed to help a friend track down the Jewish niece of one of his employees that disappeared on arrival in Berlin, and Effi wants to find ways to resist and undermine the Nazi regime. 

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. 

Review of Zoo Station by David Downing, Old Street Publishing (2007)

New Year’s eve 1939, the Nazis are ratcheting up the political pressure on their Polish and Czechoslovakia neighbours, and John Russell a freelance English journalist living in Berlin, is in a Danzig bar. When he returns to his hotel a Russian, who’d he’d last seen in 1924, is waiting for him with a proposition – to write pro-Nazi articles for Russian newspapers whilst simultaneously spying for them. Tired and frustrated with the Nazi regime he agrees, heading back to Berlin to his actress girlfriend and his son from his first marriage to a former German communist. Whilst researching and writing his stories he starts to teach English to the daughters of a Jewish couple who still hope to gain visas to travel to Britain, and is drawn into the story of his American journalist neighbour who has heard about a new, secret law to exterminate disabled people and then mysteriously commits suicide. Soon the Gestapo and British intelligence are also asking him for favours. All Russell wants to do is keep his head down and stay in Germany so he can remain with his loved ones; but he also wants to avenge the American’s death, save the Weisner family and undermine the Nazi regime in whatever way he can. Soon he’s criss-crossing Europe, sourcing and couriering dangerous information, hoping that everything works out as he hopes.

‘So what are you here for?’
‘Ah.’ Shchepkin hitched his trouser leg again. ‘I am here to offer you work.’
Russell raised an eyebrow. ‘You? Who exactly do you represent?’
The Russian shrugged. ‘My country. The Writer’s Union. It doesn’t matter. You will be working for us. You know who we are.’
‘No,’ Russell said. ‘I mean, no I’m not interested. I …’
‘Don’t be so hasty,’ Shchepkin said. ‘Hear me out. We aren’t asking you to do anything which your German hosts could object to.’ The Russian allowed himself a smile. ‘Let me tell you exactly what we have in mind. We want a series of articles about the positive aspects of the Nazi regime.’

I enjoyed Zoo Station without being bowled over by it. It’s an interesting story, competently told, with care and attention given to the historical context but lacking in high drama (despite all the potential, I was never 'on the edge of my seat'). The characterization is okay; the people populating the story are in the main ordinary folk trying to get by and the result is that they’re generally not very memorable. John Russell is a reluctant hero; he’s got no quirks or odd traits and he’s polite and sensible in dress and action. The pacing was fairly even until the end where it sped up. It would have been better I think to keep it even to the conclusion, using the plot to try and crank up the tension rather than the pace. Instead the ending feels hurried and a little ragged. The American journalist part of the story simply dropped from the plot after a while, pulled back in at the end but not very effectively and without revealing its resolution (in terms of the newspaper story or the source of the information). Overall, an interesting first novel and I’ll probably pick up the next book in the series to see how Russell gets on as an English man in Germany as war breaks out.