Zoo Station (original 2007; edition 2011)

John Russell is a british journalist living in pre-WWII Berlin who writes human interest stories for British and American papers. He has a son and girlfriend living in Berlin and if war breaks out Russell will either have to flee the country or risk being placed in a labour camp for the duration of war.

Russell is approached an old soviet buddy to write some Nazi friendly stories for a Russian newspaper and he reluctantly agrees but quickly finds there are more strings attached. When his american journalist neighbour stumbles onto an explosive story and needs help with a translation Russell accompanies him to the interview and the information they receive could get them killed but if they do nothing could get thousands of children killed. In the midst of all this drama Russell finds himself trying to help a jewish family that he has grown to like and desperately needs his help.

This is a low key and slow paced thriller but one that kept me thinking. I quite enjoyed this novel and was happy to find out it was part of a series. I will be picking up the next book as soon as I can! ( )

This is an excellent period piece. It does prewar [late 38/early 39] Berlin excellently while also wandering through other parts of Germany, Poland and Prague. Indeed the only historical howler is a British intelligence officer telling the POV character [he is scarcely a hero] that the UK will fight over Poland because they cannot let Hitler get further ahead in armaments. In fact Hitler had gotten a 3-4 year head start but the Anglo-French were in the process of catching up. Adolph's best window of opportunity was 1939 into the first half of 1940. By the autumn of 1940 the window starts to close and by the end of 1941 it is gone [this presumes Paris doesn't fall so the French program is finished]. However the author's howler is what most of the pop histories say so he doesn't lose the one star for that. However while this is a lovely costume dram / period piece it works much less well as a piece of fiction. There are too many plot threads, too many secondary characters and the ending is more than a trifle too deus ex machina pat. Still kudos for making a workable ending. Many writers would have simply let it hang. The book was good enough that I ordered the next volume from Amazon but I do hope the author refines his story telling as the series goes on. It just never quite works as a thriller or a spy story or a police procedural [perhaps because it seems never to quite decide exactly what it is]. ( )

John Russell, an English freelance journalist living in pre-WW2 Germany, has a slight problem. If war is declared, he will be deported and separated from his son and his girlfriend, both of whom are German citizens. And as the nation slips toward war he finds himself becoming conflicted as a person: who does he identify with? Over his 15 years living in Berlin, he's felt more German than English, but as the Nazis' agenda becomes apparent, he's becoming less German but hasn't gone back to being English. So what does he do when approached to do some work for the Soviets?

It took me a while to get into this book, although it was probably more my fault than the book's. Extensive experience with Len Deighton's Bernard Samson series made me feel as though the story should have been told in first person, especially because the third-person limited felt like a first-person narration with the pronouns changed. Of course that is the point of third-person limited, but that was just my impression. Once I got used to the style I became more invested in the characters. I also liked Downing's evocation of pre-war Berlin, since so much of my Berlin-related reading is postwar. I will probably end up reading the rest of the series but will not rush. ( )

John Russell has divided loyalties. A British citizen with an American mother, he married a German woman he met while attending the 1924 Communist Party Congress in Moscow. Now, in 1939, he has been living in Berlin for nearly 20 years, is divorced with a 12 year old son, Paul, and has a German film star girlfriend named Effie. As the Nazi invasion of Poland looms ever closer, events conspire to test these various loyalties.

From a fellow journalist, John learns about a horrible crime the Nazis are secretly perpetrating against a segment of the German population. When his colleague is murdered, John must decide how to get the information out of the country; perhaps it will be the turning point that will sway American isolationists into the coming war. At the same time, John tutors two Jewish girls in English as their father is trying to get them visas to England. When first the brother and then the father get into trouble with the Gestapo, John has to decide how best he can help the family without the Nazi's revoking his German residency visa.

What I liked best about this book was the increasing tension as the war looms closer but no one knows exactly when it will start. What I liked least was the portrayal of Effie in this book. To me, she seemed a caricature of a not-so-bright film star used for sex. Fortunately that changes as the series progresses. ( )

In Nazi controlled Germany one spent much of their time keeping their head down and trying not to draw any attention to themselves. In [Zoo Station] David Downing captures this claustrophobic feeling as he tells the story of Anglo-American journalist John Russell, living and working in Berlin, held there by emotional ties. He has a German girlfriend he doesn’t wish to leave and a half-German son who means the world to him. Being a divorced father means he gets to spend very little time with his son, but if he left or was expelled he would have to leave his son behind.

What then does he do when he stumbles on an enormous story, one that the rest of the world really should see to get a true picture of how far the Nazi regime is willing to go to keep their bloodlines pure. Another journalist has already been killed over this story, and the hunt is on for the letters and documents that would reveal their plans. At the same time John agrees to teach English to a couple of Jewish girls whose parents are trying desperately to get the family, or at least the children out of Germany. When the father is accused of a crime and the mother is refused a Visa, how can a man of conscience not get involved?

David Downing manages to tell a well paced, complex story that draws the reader along, quietly building the tension as the increasingly murderous nature of this regime is revealed. Hindsight is twenty-twenty and we know what is going to eventually happen, but this is a masterful look at a repressed and frightened people under the control of a government that ruled by terror, unfortunately these people looked the other way and did not want to become involved until it was suddenly too late. ( )