Winter Work
-
- € 6,99
Beschrijving uitgever
An exhilarating spy thriller inspired by a true story about the precious secrets being kept hidden just after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
BERLIN, 1990. On a chilly early morning walk, Emil Grimm finds the body of his neighbour, fellow Stasi officer Lothar, lying dead with a bullet wound to the temple. Despite the appearance of suicide, Emil suspects murder, for as East Germany disintegrates, being a Stasi colonel is more of a liability than an asset. Emil and Lothar were involved in a final clandestine mission – now Emil must finish the job alone, on uncertain ground where alliances seem to be shifting by the day.
Meanwhile, CIA agent Claire Saylor, sent to Berlin to assist an Agency action against their collapsing East German adversaries, has just received an upgrade to her assignment: she'll be the designated contact for a high-ranking Stasi foreign intelligence officer. When her first rendezvous goes dangerously awry, she realizes the mission is far more delicate than she was led to believe. Emil and Claire soon find themselves on unlikely common ground, fighting for their lives against a powerful enemy hiding in the shadows.
Reviewers on Winter Work:
'An entertaining thriller about a society turned upside down.' Joseph Kanon
'Fesperman belongs in the front rank of American spy novelists.' Charles Cumming
'Into this lethal turmoil, Fesperman injects an acute sense of place, and a mastery of the many consequences of failure.' Graham Hurley
'An engrossing, deep-in-the-weeds thriller.' Kirkus
'Winter Work is just fantastic.' Olen Steinhauer
'Superb spy thriller.' Publishers Weekly
'Fesperman's smooth, easy style belies its complexity, and makes for an engaging read.' Crime Time
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of this superb spy thriller set in 1990 from Fesperman (The Cover Wife), Emil Grimm, who's soon to be discharged from the foreign intelligence service of East Germany's Ministry of State Security, is walking in the woods near his "dacha" north of Berlin when he comes across a crime scene. Investigators are prowling near a body, which Grimm helps identify as his fellow Stasi officer, Lothar Fischer, with whom he was working on a final operation after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The gun in Fischer's hand suggests he died by suicide, but Grimm suspects otherwise. Meanwhile, CIA agent Claire Saylor (last seen in The Cover Wife) is in Berlin on a mission that leads her to cross paths with Grimm. Fesperman nicely works historical figures such as Markus Wolf, "the Stasi's most renowned spymaster," into the complex plot while painting an evocative portrait of East Berlin, "spying's most storied theme park." A surprisingly moving bond develops between Saylor and Grimm, who fears prosecution or worse after reunification, as the action builds to a deeply satisfying denouement. Cold War–era spy fiction doesn't get much better than this.
