Stasi State: The gripping Cold War thriller for fans of Robert Harris

David Young

Feb 2018 · Bonnier Publishing Fiction Ltd.

About this ebook

A gripping thriller set in 1970s East Germany, perfect for fans of Child 44, Phillip Kerr and Martin Cruz Smith.

FOR THE STASI, IT'S NOT JUST THE TRUTH THAT GETS BURIED . . .

The body of a teenage boy is found weighted down in a lake. Karin Müller, newly appointed Major of the People's Police, is called to investigate. But her power will only stretch so far, when every move she makes is under the watchful eye of the Stasi.

Then, when the son of Müller's team member goes missing, it quickly becomes clear that there is a terrifying conspiracy at the heart of this case, one that could fast lead Müller and her young family into real danger.

Can she navigate this complex political web and find the missing boy, before it's too late?

-----

Previously published as A Darker State

-----

Praise for CWA Award-winning David Young

'Young is excellent at describing terrible injustice, mass and personal, by way of a strong plot and a sympathetic woman' The Times

'A Darker State is gripping, thrilling and very, very good' William Ryan

'Masterful. . . an intricate, absorbing page-turner' Daily Express

'This fast-paced thriller hooks the readers from the start' The Sun

'Superb. A thrilling Cold War mystery that reminded me of Robert Harris at his best' Mason Cross

'Up there with Martin Cruz Smith and the other greats of the field' Abir Mukherjee

Ratings and reviews

"A Darker State" is both a thriller and a murder mystery that just happens to take place in East Germany in 1976. Oberleutnant Karin Müller of the East German Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police) has been promoted to major in order to head up an investigative team with national authority, and is assigned to the case when the body of a teenage boy is found on near the East German-Polish border. In the process of investigating, she runs up against the dreaded MfS, the Ministry for State Security, otherwise known as the Stasi, whose interest in the case is mysterious. She must tread carefully when the teenage son of a high-ranking Stasi officer is shown to be involved in unexpected ways, and when the involvement of the Stasi bleeds over into her personal life, it begins to affect her own friends and family, with potential repercussions that can only be described as dire. The protagonist is interesting, because she is neither a party loyalist nor a dissident. The daughter of a German mother and a Soviet soldier father, who disappeared shortly after her birth, she is a product of the system and still believes in it, but she is not blind to the contradictions in the system, nor to the fact that she plays a part in some things she'd rather not think too hard about. As the series has progressed, she is starting to develop a more complete view of the world she finds herself in, and as the series progresses towards the inevitable end that the reader knows is coming with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, of which she of course has no inkling, it will be fascinating to see how she adapts as the only world she has known starts to collapse. But that's for future volumes. I'll add one other thing--36 years ago this summer, I visited East Berlin and East Germany. The writing in this series (it's the third book of a planned five) has captured the feel of that time in the East beautifully, both in atmosphere and in details. The author has clearly done his homework. I recommend this book wholeheartedly.

Set during the Cold War I found it unusual that we were actually behind the Iron Curtain and not in a "those awful Socialists way". Instead this is very much a procedural set within the confines of the People's Police of East Berlin during the mid-1970's, Although the third in a series having not read the previous two books does not spoil your reading of this tale, it is very much stand alone. The characters are introduced to you in such a way that you get to know them without it being mostly spent rehashing previous books. There are throwbacks to those books scattered throughout but more in the way of the main protagonist, Karin Muller's, thoughts about similarities to previous crimes than anything else. Struggling to reconcile her life as a mother of 6 month old twins, her fracturing relationship with their father Emil, her new promotion to Major and subsequent heading up of a specialist detective unit Karin has enough going on without the constant impinging of the Stasi. She knows her home life is blatantly spied upon and that they will interfere at every level of her investigation but she still tries to seek out truth. This book keeps well away from the East Is Bad and West Is Good so beloved of this genre. Instead they are what they are but the people are the same no matter which side of the Anti-Fascist Barrier they fall on. The flow of the tale is good and the plot unfolds in real time, and flashback, in such a way that you do keep turning those pages. Be it Karin's struggles at home, her doubts about Tilsner and her dubious relationship with Stasi hierarchy; you want to know it all. I'm not entirely sure that I could be persuaded to read the earlier books in this series though. I did enjoy this book but more as a one off than any real investment in the people and places. It is well written but just didn't grip me enough to make me invested in the characters. I'm not sure what was missing for me but there was always something just out of reach that could have transformed this from a good book to a great book. I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.

About the author

East Yorkshire-born David Young began his East German-set crime series on a creative writing MA at London's City University when Stasi Child - his debut - won the course prize. The novel went on to win the 2016 CWA Historical Dagger, and both it and the 2017 follow-up, Stasi Wolf, were longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. His novels have been sold in eleven territories round the world. Before becoming a full-time author, David was a senior journalist with the BBC's international radio and TV newsrooms for more than 25 years. He writes in his Twickenham garden shed and in a caravan on the Isle of Wight. The Stasi Game, his sixth novel, is available to pre-order now. You can follow him on Twitter @djy_writer