Jefferson Flanders

This is a spy story set in Berlin in 1959, when tensions were high between the US and the Soviets over the future of the city. The Soviets, via the East Berlin Stasi, coerce an attractive actress, Christa Schmitt, into seducing a newly arrived US diplomat, Dillon Randolph, in order to compromise him. Through coincidence this plan comes to the attention of a British intelligence agent, Felix Hawes, who has been sent to Berlin to identify a traitor who is leaking secrets from the British Mission to the Soviets. Hawes sees a way to use the East Berlin honey pot scheme to help him identify the traitor at the British Mission. He approaches Dillon to work with him against the Soviets. Dillon who has fallen in love with Christa is reluctant to place her in jeopardy, but agrees to work with Hawes.

It's an easy read: interesting story with interesting characters in an interesting location. There's all the ingredients of a cold war spy novel: an American diplomat, a beautiful woman, political intrigue, British spy-catchers, nasty East Germans and scheming Russians. Despite that, the end product lacks the edge you expect in spy fiction. It's bland and lifeless, a disappointment in view of the potential for a terrific story. Dillon is difficult to take seriously. As one of the intelligence officers said of him, a diplomat who cannot keep it in his pants is trouble waiting to happen. There's a lingering question why the Russians are interested in him because he is junior without access to secret information. We are told at the end that he has had a brilliant career, but no evidence of that is produced. Dillon comes across as a naive entitled son of a politician who got the Berlin posting solely because of his connections and his ability to speak German. On the other hand, the British spycatcher Hawes comes across as the hero of the story, even though he does not initially catch the mole in the British Mission in Berlin. The end of the book is a bit of a mishmash and oddly introduces a couple of new characters, a photographer and a journalist. There may be a point in including a scenario about he fall of the Berlin Wall, but it escaped me.

The Berlin setting is well presented, there's an authentic feeling about it, which helps in creating atmosphere. The notes at the beginning and ending of the book about the political situation are good for putting the story in context.

It's an OK story that could have been a good one.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of the book to review. The views expressed are my own.… (mais)