"Germany, 1933. The world is not yet at war, but the influence of the Nazi party is spreading like wildfire through Berlin. The prequel to the bestselling Station series introduces us to John Russell, an Englishman with a political past who must keep hishead down as the Nazis solidify their power. The Reichstag parliament building has burned down, just four weeks after Hitler's appointment as German Chancellor. The torching will be used to justify the Nazi reign which followed. John Russell's recent separation from his wife is threatening his right to reside in Germany, and any meaningful relationship with his six year-old son Paul. He has just secured work as a crime reporter on a Berlin newspaper, and three of the stories with which he becomes involved--the gruesome murder of a rent boy, the apparently accidental running over of a professional genealogist, the suspicious disappearance of a Nazi-supporting celebrity fortune-teller--may not look alike in any way, but are seemingly connected. All these investigations carry the risk of Russell falling foul of the authorities at a time when the rule of law has completely vanished and the Nazis are running scores of pop-up detention centres complete with torture chambers in every corner of Berlin"--
A prequel to the best-selling Station series is set a month after Hitler’s inauguration as Chancellor and introduces an English crime reporter with a political past who must avoid Nazi attention to retain custody of his son.
The prequel to David Downing’s bestselling Station series introduces John Russell, an Englishman with a political past who must keep his head down as the Nazis solidify their powerBerlin, 27 February 1933. A month after Hitler’s inauguration as Chancellor of Germany, the Reichstag parliament building is set ablaze. The Nazis use the torching to justify a campaign of terror against their political opponents. John Russell’s recent separation from his wife threatens his right to reside in Germany and any meaningful relationship with his six-year-old son Paul. He has just secured work as a crime reporter for a Berlin newspaper, and the crimes which he has to report—the gruesome murder of a rent boy, the hit-and-run death of a professional genealogist, the suspicious disappearance of a Nazi-supporting celebrity fortune-teller—are increasingly entangled in the wider nightmare engulfing Germany. Each new investigation carries the risk of Russell’s falling foul of the authorities, at a time when the rule of law has completely vanished, and the Nazis are running scores of pop-up detention centers, complete with torture chambers, in every corner of Berlin.