David Downing Books

"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 his head 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"--

Convincing alternative history of the Second World War The Third Reich's real options How the fall of Moscow changes the course of the War

April, 1945. The Third Reich is on the verge of extinction, and its enemies are already plotting against each other. For John Russell, this has personal importance: his son and girlfriend are trapped in Berlin and only the Soviets can get him in there. But the price of their help will threaten both his and the world's postwar future.

In April 1945, Hitler’s Reich is on the verge of extinction. Assaulted by Allied bombs and Soviet shells, ruled by Nazis with nothing to lose, Berlin has become the most dangerous place on earth. John Russell’s son Paul is stationed on the Eastern Front with the German Army, awaiting the Soviets’ final onslaught. In Berlin, Russell’s girlfriend Effi has been living in disguise, helping fugitives to escape from Germany. With a Jewish orphan to care for, she’s trying to outlast the Nazis. Russell hasn’t heard from either of them since fleeing Germany in 1941. He is desperate to find out if they’re alive and to protect them from the advancing Red Army. He flies to Moscow, seeking permission to enter Berlin with the Red Army as a journalist, but when the Soviet’s arrest him as a spy, things look bleak—until they find a use for him that has him parachuting into Berlin behind German lines.

Paris, November 1945. John Russell is walking home along the banks of the Seine on a cold and misty evening when Soviet agent Yevgeny Shchepkin falls into step alongside him. Shchepkin tells Russell that the American intelligence will soon be asking him to undertake some low grade espionage on their behalf--assessing the strains between different sections of the German Communist Party--and that Shchepkin's own bosses in Moscow want him to accept the task and pass his findings on to them. He adds that refusal will put Russell's livelihood and life at risk, but that once he has accepted it, he'll find himself even further entangled in the Soviet net. It's a lose-lose situation. Shchepkin admits that his own survival now depends on his ability to utilize Russell. The only way out for the two of them is to make a deal with the Americans. If they can come up with something the Americans want or need badly enough, then perhaps Russell will be forgiven for handing German atomic secrets over to Moscow and Shchepkin might be offered the sort of sanctuary that also safeguards the lives of his wife and daughter in Moscow. Every decision Russell makes now is a dangerous one.

In the fall of 1941, Anglo-American journalist John Russell is still living in Berlin, tied to the increasingly alien city by his love for two Berliners: his fourteen-year-old son Paul and his longtime girlfriend Effi. Forced to work for both German and American intelligence, he's searching for a way out of Germany. Can he escape and take Effi with him?

In the fourth and final installment of David Downing’s spy series, Jack McColl is sent to Soviet Russia, where the civil war is coming to an end. The Bolsheviks have won but the country is in ruins. With the hopes engendered by the revolution hanging by a thread, plots and betrayals abound. London, 1921: Ex–Secret Service spy Jack McColl is in prison serving time for assaulting a cop. McColl has been embittered by the Great War; he feels betrayed by the country that had sent so many young men to die needlessly. He can’t stomach spying for the British Empire anymore. He’s also heartbroken. The love of his life, radical journalist Caitlin Hanley, parted ways with him three years earlier so she could offer her services to the Communist revolution in Moscow. Then his former Secret Service boss offers McColl the chance to escape his jail sentence if he takes a dangerous and unofficial assignment in Russia, where McColl is already a wanted man. He would be spying on other spies, sniffing out the truth about MI5 meddling in a high-profile assassination plot. The target is someone McColl cares about and respects. The MI5 agent involved is someone he loathes. With the knowledge that he may be walking into a death trap, McColl sets out for Moscow, the scene of his last heartbreak. Little does he know that his mission will throw him back into Caitlin’s life—or that her husband will be one of the men he is trying to hunt down.

Summer, 1939. British journalist John Russell has just been granted American citizenship in exchange for agreeing to work for American intelligence when his girlfriend Effi is arrested by the Gestapo. Russell hoped his new nationality would let him safely stay in Berlin with Effi and his son, but now he’s being blackmailed. To free Effi, he must agree to work for the Nazis. They know he has Soviet connections and want him to pass them false intelligence. Russell consents, but secretly offers his services to the Soviets instead—not for anything too dangerous, though, and only if they’ll sneak him and Effi out of Germany if necessary. It’s a good plan, but soon things become complicated. A Jewish girl has vanished, and Russell feels compelled to search for her. A woman from his past, a communist, reappears, insisting he help her reconnect with the Soviets, who turn out to demand more than Russell hoped. Meanwhile, Europe lurches toward war, and he must follow the latest stories—to places where American espionage assignments await him.

Spring 1915. As the Great War burns its way across Europe, Jack McColl, a spy for His Majesty's Navy, is stationed in India, charged with defending the Empire against Bengali terrorists and their German allies. In England, meanwhile, suffragette journalist Caitlin Hanley begins the business of rebuilding her life after the execution of her brother, an Irish republican sympathizer whose plot Jack McColl--Caitlin's ex-lover--had foiled. The war is changing everything, and giving fresh impulse to those causes--feminism, socialism and Irish independence--which she as a journalist has long supported. The threat of a Rising in Dublin alarms McColl's bosses as much as it dazzles Caitlin. It was one Irish plot which came between Jack and Caitlin in 1914, and it will take another to bring them back together, as both enemies and lovers.

"As 1939 begins, war looms over Europe. Anglo-American journalist John Russell has lived in Berlin long enough to have a German ex-wife and an eleven-year-old son there. He also has a longtime girlfriend, a beautiful German film starlet. Hoping to stay in Germany as long as possible, he writes human interest pieces for British and American newspapers, avoiding the investigative journalism that could get him deported." "But playing it safe turns out to be more difficult than Russell expected. He is approached by an acquaintance from his old communist days who asks him to write some articles for the Soviets. Russell is initially reluctant, but the work seems safe enough at first. At the same time, he becomes involved in more dangerous activities, helping a Jewish family as well as an idealistic young American reporter who is investigating Nazi secrets." "Soon British and Nazi intelligence become aware of Russell's involvement with the Soviets. All three want to use him as he is dragged into the murky world of warning intelligence services."--BOOK JACKET.