This is the sixth and final novel in the John Russell/Effi Koenen series set around the second world war. This has been a superbly written series, full of a sense of time and place, and richly textured. Most of the novels have meandered a bit along the way, but in hindsight I now see this as part of their appeal, rather than a drawback. In this final novel the action moves forward three years to 1948 at a time when the cold war is hotting up: the former wartime allies are at loggerheads in Berlin; the Communists have taken over in Czechoslovakia; and in Yugoslavia Stalin's hegemony is being challenged by Tito's alternative approach to socialism. John Russell is as usual playing the sides off against each other and here must pull one final daring feat that will give him leverage to remove himself from both rival sides of his double agent role. One of the most interesting characters was the German communist Kurt Strohm, a loyal, hardworking and sincere believer in his cause, but whose disillusionment grows as the Soviet grip on East Berlin grows and he comes to realise he and his comrades will not be allowed to chart their own socialist path. I'm quite sorry this series has ended now. ( )

The final story in the John Russell series takes us up to the Berlin blockage by the Russians in 1947. Russell is still playing off the Russians and Americans and travelling around post-WW2 Europe, Trieste, Vienna and Prague trying to avoid revealing his activities to one or other or both. Incredibly well researched and with believable characters. ( )

Lots of plot: spies lie, double cross, cheat, kill, and steal. Oodles of atmosphere: funky hotels, great hotels, train stations, restaurants, Prague, Vienna, Berlin. Rampant cynicism : US mollycoddling Nazi murders and sadists, earnest justice seekers finding lazy intelligence workers and chewing gum Americans, good German socialists having to deal with with Beria and Stalin. Many relationships: couples, adopted children, abandoned children, lovers, haters, and murderers. History: the blockade, Czech defenestration, Yugoslav recalcitrance. But wooden people--the ideas in their heads are simple, unbelievable, but easy to write. This could have been a good book, but Downing needed to do more than wham-bam spy mongering. ( )

I have only read one book in this series, the first one. I enjoyed it, but it did not make me thirst for more. But this is an excellent espionage thriller, set in Berlin at the time leading up to the blockade. There is an awful lot going on in the background as well as the struggles over Berlin and between the "allies", with the escape route for former Nazis, the growing grip of Russia on the new Iron Curtain states and the split between Russia and Yugoslavia all playing a role in complicating the plot. The central relationships between John Russell and his film star wife and between him and his control / agent [it is quite difficult at times to work out who is giving what information through who to who] are very well drawn and the pace of the book is relentless. Thankfully there is relatively little "thrilling" action. I enjoyed it at lot, but I doubt that I will now go backwards and pick up what I had missed. ( )

A very satisfying end to the series, although still leaving me with a wish for a more detailed epilogue that told us more about the rest of the cast's lives.

As with the others there is a lot of history being told here, Downing does his research and then puts it on the page. Although one obvious lack was the bit about copying a film where the story goes straight from copying to playback without going through the development process. This is in an era where chemical processing was needed to view pictures on film after they'd been shot. Given the rest of the research I'd have thought that was known to Downing.

I did enjoy this though, and there were a number of different angles. My favourite was Strohm, who we met in Stettin Station as the railway worker that was tipping off Russell when the Jewish transports were leaving so that he could witness them. By this story he's a senior member of the East German communist party (although not quite East Germany yet). He's on the inside track of what the Soviets are planning and he's also losing his faith in the Soviet control of the German Communist Party. Everything he's asked to do goes against his inner principles and belief in socialism. This was a common part of the KPD survivors and most of those where finally repressed after the June 1953 uprising.

This is the last of the series, Russell has got his out from the blackmail that made him work for the Soviets. Although I wouldn't be too surprised to find that there is a later book. Russell's leverage with the soviets will eventually expire, and he'll also have trouble working in the USA when the McCarthyites get going. ( )