This is an East German murder mystery with a difference - it is set in an alternative 1993 where the GDR still exists, but not as a communist state. They still overthrew communist rule and the Wall still fell, but as a result of minor differences in the sequence of events, a referendum resulted in East Germans voting not to reunite with West Germany. In this scenario, the East Germans are, at least in the view of the main characters in this novel, trying to construct a democratic, independent socialist alternative to both their predecessor Soviet bloc state and the West. While a fascinating idea, it struck me as unrealistic both from the narrative of the novel, and from my own memories as a young man in 1989-90 when these events happened. The murder mystery here surrounds the gruesome slaying of a politician from West Silesia, which is threatening to secede from the GDR, taking it with many sources of raw materials and energy. It's also linked to events in the USSR, which still exists and is still led by Mikhail Gorbachev, but which no longer holds sway over the GDR. Some fascinating ideas for anyone interested in the geopolitics of the end of the Cold War, but the main problem is the author seemed to me to be clearly not terribly interested in the murder mystery, but much more interested in the political speculation; which is fair enough, but I can't help feeling the author would have been better writing a non-fictional "what if" work, rather than a whodunit. I didn't find the main characters particularly appealing either. So I doubt whether I will bother with the rest of the trilogy. ( )

Insights in East German spy story overshadowed by didactic passages and convoluted conspiracy

It's 1993 and East Germany (GDR), recently free from the grip of the Soviet Union, is experimenting with a socialist style of direct democracy. The country is struggling - economically, politically, even psychologically and it's citizens are doing their best to cope.

Martin Grobe is sort of a cop, but without much authority. His job is to keep the new republic on course. How he and his colleagues do this is by attending a lot of meaningless meetings and talking philosophy.

A minor official is found murdered. Why Grobe is sent to investigate is never clear. In fact quite a bit of Max Hertzberg's, Stealing the Future, An East German Spy Story is vague including the conspiracy theory behind the murder.

However, if you're interested in the landmarks of East Berlin this story reads like a guidebook and there's some interesting history of what it was like to live in the German Democratic Republic while controlled by the Soviets and the difficulty it's citizens had in changing from a totalitarian regime, where you were told what to do and how to think, to democratic system where you must take control of your own destiny.

There's some good characterization with realistic relationships and dialogue but overall the plot is plagued by didactic passages and the conspiracy that drives the narrative was beyond this reader's comprehension. ( )