Wedding Station

I have been looking forward to this prequel novel in Downing's John Russell series. I've read 6 previous books by Downing this past decade but this one disappointed me for a couple of reasons. First off, I think the book I am looking for would be a prequel to this one! I want to read about Russell's life 8 or 10 years before this book opens - the time when he was in the communist party, when he met the woman who would become his wife, the birth of his son and early days with him. In fact, the story could even begin 15 years before at the battle of Ypres. This book, like the others in the series, does touch base with people and events from John Russell's past. However, I would like to have read that story.

My other problem here is show more Downing's portrayal of the 1933 brownshirts (SA) as full of homosexuals. I believe that is a debunked myth probably spawned by Hitler and his cronies as one of many reasons for his purges and persecutions in Nazi Germany. Yes, the leader of the SA was homosexual. Are we to equate homosexuality with Nazi thugs? In any event I found the portrayal here troubling even though it isn't a major theme - it is a minor theme though and we are reminded of it throughout the book. Downing is a skilled writer and the "tours" across Berlin he gives in his books are a big element of his stories. I enjoy that aspect but it is also getting a little repetitive. There is enough good material in this novel to carry the story through.

I think someone who is starting out with this as the first Downing book would enjoy this more than me. I felt let down. show less

Crime and politics in Nazi Germany!

1933 Berlin on the eve of Hitler’s rise to power. Englishman John Russell is a crime reporter with the Morgenspiegel, a daily newspaper. He’s also a disenchanted communist and is separated from his German wife.
The opening event catching one’s attention is the burning down of the Reichstag parliament building, ostensibly by the Communists, in all probability started by SA (Sturmführer / Brown shirts) arsonists, setting the scene.
So much is happening, the rise of the Brown Shirts, death of those who stand against Hitler, including communist sympathizers, persecution of Jews, violence against others like male prostitutes, and all who walked on the wild side, who didn’t adhere to the ideals of the show more right.
Russell as a registered Resident Foreign National is determined to remain in Berlin for his son Paul’s sake. How to manage that and still stay true to reporting without running a foul of the Nazis is a trial.
As he investigates crimes that seem to meld or at least run parallel, Russell finds himself holding material that would see him killed. He is driven to associate with Communist Party members. He’s dragged off to be questioned by the SA and later the Prussian Political Police. Russell is right in the thick of things and it’s not healthy!
Downing’s given us a look at ordinary and extraordinary people during this time of German History. I found it compelling. To my mind he’s up there with Philip Kerr.
Wedding Station is the prelude to the previous Station stories involving John Russell. Until now I’d never read any but now, I’m itching to start. Wedding is a run down poorer part of Berlin.
This look at the rise of Nazism from a somewhat cynical newspaper hack looking to maintain his position and continue to be part of his son’s life is very personal. He needs to stay in Germany as a foreign correspondent. But how to marry that with the horrors he is already starting to witness?
A compelling read!

A Soho Press ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.) show less

Set in February 1933 as the Nazis prepare to seize power, Wedding Station follows the life of British reporter John Russell in Berlin. Russell works on the crime desk for a German paper and is separated from his wife and six year old son. As the Nazis wreak havoc in the city, persecuting jews, communists and everyone else whose face does not fit, Russell pursues stories around the murder of a rent boy, the disappearance of a celebrity astrologer, the death of a genealogist, all the time conscious that the new regime may take notice of his past dalliance with communism.
This was the prequel to a series of novels about John Russell, presumably set in Nazi Germany (I don't know as I've not read the others). It was good enough to perhaps show more merit looking at the first in that series but I don't think I will rush to get to it. The characterisation was OK, though the Nazis weren't really nasty or fleshed out enough. The real problem was that there were too many threads. Russell's reporting activities took him into many stories and I hoped that they would somehow weave together into a coherent whole, but it never happened. I have the suspicion that this is another Bernie Gunther fan fiction effort that hasn't quite hit the mark. Sound but not gripping. show less

This is a prequel to the series of novels featuring English journalist John Russell, living and working in Berlin in the run up to and after the second world war. In this one, Hitler has just come to power and the Reichstag has just been set on fire. Separated from his German wife Ilse, Russell's position in the country is precarious, though he wants to remain to be a father to his six year old son Paul. He investigates a variety of crimes for his paper Morgenspiegel, some political and some ordinary criminal. The ways in which he can cover the former become more restricted, especially when it emerges that some of these crimes have been committed by Hitler's SA (the brownshirts). Dodging (or failing to dodge) a variety of dangers, show more Russell inadvertently discovers information that plays into the struggle between the SA and the SD (Blackshirts). There is a lot packed into this novel, though the connections between the various crimes, if there were any, was sometimes rather unclear. The novel gives a good sense of the increasing despair and bafflement of Russell and liberal-minded Germans immediately after Hitler's rise to power - can this really be happening in the land of Beethoven, and can people really fall for Hitler's rubbish? Surely this must only be a short abberation....The novel ends with Russell meeting actress Effi Koenen, who becomes his girlfriend in the later novels. show less

The SA were given the starting role as the villains in this one, which I found interesting as they are often left in the background once the Nazi purge them as they consolidated power. Another great Russell novel.