Masaryk Station by David Downing (English) Paperback Book

Description: Masaryk Station by David Downing Berlin, 1948. Still occupied by the four Allied powers and largely in ruins, the city has become the cockpit of a new Cold War. The legacies of the war have become entangled in the new Soviet-American conflict, creating a world of bizarre and fleeting loyalties—a paradise for spies. As spring unfolds, a Western withdrawal looks increasingly likely. Berlins German inhabitants live in fear of the Soviet forces who occupy half the city, and whose legacy of violence has ripped apart many families. John Russell works for both Stalins NKVD and the newly created CIA, trying his best to cut himself loose from both before his double-agency is discovered by either. As tensions between the great powers escalate, each passing day makes Russells position more treacherous. He and his Soviet liaison, Shchepkin, seek out one final operation—one piece of intelligence so damning it could silence the wrath of one nation and solicit the protection of the other. It will be the most dangerous task Russell has ever taken on, but one way or the other, it will be his last. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography David Downing grew up in suburban London. He is the author of the Jack McColl novels, Jack of Spies, One Mans Flag, Lenins Roller Coaster, and The Dark Clouds Shining; the thrillers The Red Eagles and Diary of a Dead Man on Leave; and six books in the John Russell espionage series, set in WWII Berlin. He lives with his wife, an American acupuncturist, in Guildford, England. Review Praise for Masaryk Station"Epic in scope, Mr. Downings Station cycle creates a fictional universe rich with a historians expertise but rendered with literary style and heart."—The Wall Street Journal"Downing adroitly elucidates the morass that was post-World War II geopolitics without dumbing it down . . . One can only marvel at his talent for infusing such a rangy cast of characters with nuance and soul." —The New York Times Book Review"This is a brilliant finale to one of spydoms best series. If you havent read all the others, get them first and enjoy the whole feast." —The Globe and Mail"Downing is one of a trio of exceptional writers (Philip Kerr and Alan Furst being the other two) who have managed to re-create a time and place when much of the world seemed to have gone temporarily mad."—The Denver Post"Downings outstanding evocation of the times (as masterly as that found in Alan Fursts novels or Philip Kerrs Bernie Gunther series), thematic complexity (as rich as that of John le Carré), and the wide assortment of fully rendered characters provide as much or more pleasure than the plot, where disparate threads are tied together in satisfying and unexpected ways."—Library Journal, Starred Review"Downing returns with another taut tale of espionage as World War II shades deeper into the Cold War and good guys get harder to tell from bad.... Downing writes with a sure grasp of the way bad situations become worse; hes a master of heightened tension and the sweat-bedewed upper lip... The local color and cigarette smoke are thick, and so is the plot, with fine MacGuffins, a truly red herring or two, and even a man in the boot to keep things interesting."—Kirkus Reviews"If your reaction is anything like mine, youll want to continue through the entire series."—Books & Culture"The Station books are without a doubt some of the finest espionage novels these days, easily inviting comparisons to the legends of the genre like John le Carre, Frederick Forsyth and Tom Clancy . . . You wont want to read anything else until you have devoured the entire series."—BookPage (Top Pick in Mystery)"David Downing has created a complicated plot with many twists and turns while the hero seems caught in a maze." —Historical Novel Society "This is a thrilling and suspenseful espionage series, one of the best being written today. One cares about Russell and his family and even the somewhat oily Shchepkin as they attempt to unravel themselves from the brutal and unfeeling intelligence services. Its an extremely dangerous time and the likelihood for failure is high. If you like spy novels, you need to read all of the John Russell series."—Bookgasm "I loved Masaryk Station. The plot in interesting, but the real point is the insight into the times. It provided insights and aroused emotions in me concerning my own experiences during the Cold War and helped build some perspective over the world events that I, in my youth, only knew asfact." —Gumshoe Review "A wonderfully written mixture of history, espionage, and suspense. Downing perfectly captures post-war Berlin . . . Intelligently written, provocatively told, and thoroughly convincing in every aspect, [John] Russell is a man who will not soon be forgotten by the readers of these books."—Deadly Pleasures"The book is a wonderful introduction to the Berlin Blockade, told through an exciting story with likeable characters." —Blogcritics.orgPraise for David Downing "Full of striking inventions.""Kingsley Amis, author of Lucky Jim "A beautifully crafted and compelling thriller with a heart-stopping ending as John Russell learns the personal faces of good and evil. An unforgettable read.""Charles Todd, author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge Series "One of the most intelligent and persuasive realizations of Germany immediately before the war.""The Wall Street Journal "In the elite company of literary spy masters Alan Furst and Philip Kerr . . . [Downing is] brilliant at evoking even the smallest details of wartime Berlin on its last legs.""The Washington Post"Downing distinguishes himself by eschewing the easy ways out. He doesnt shy away from portraying the cold brutality of the Third Reich, and his characters are far from stereotypes—theyre flawed, confused and real."—NPR Review Quote Praise for Masaryk Station "Epic in scope, Mr. Downings "Station" cycle creates a fictional universe rich with a historians expertise but rendered with literary style and heart." -The Wall Street Journal "This is a brilliant finale to one of spydoms best series. If you havent read all the others, get them first and enjoy the whole feast." -The Globe and Mail "Downing is one of a trio of exceptional writers (Philip Kerr and Alan Furst being the other two) who have managed to re-create a time and place when much of the world seemed to have gone temporarily mad." -The Denver Post "Downings outstanding evocation of the times (as masterly as that found in Alan Fursts novels or Philip Kerrs Bernie Gunther series), thematic complexity (as rich as that of John le Carré), and the wide assortment of fully rendered characters provide as much or more pleasure than the plot, where disparate threads are tied together in satisfying and unexpected ways." - Library Journal, STARRED Review "If your reaction is anything like mine, youll want to continue through the entire series." -Books & Culture "The Station books are without a doubt some of the finest espionage novels these days, easily inviting comparisons to the legends of the genre like John le Carre, Frederick Forsyth and Tom Clancy… You wont want to read anything else until you have devoured the entire series." -BookPage (Top Pick in Mystery) "David Downing has created a complicated plot with many twists and turns while the hero seems caught in a maze." - Historical Novel Society "This is a thrilling and suspenseful espionage series, one of the best being written today. One cares about Russell and his family and even the somewhat oily Shchepkin as they attempt to unravel themselves from the brutal and unfeeling intelligence services. Its an extremely dangerous time and the likelihood for failure is high. If you like spy novels, you need to read all of the John Russell series." -Bookgasm "I loved Masaryk Station . The plot in interesting, but the real point is the insight into the times. It provided insights and aroused emotions in me concerning my own experiences during the Cold War and helped build some perspective over the world events that I, in my youth, only knew as fact ." -Gumshoe Review "The book is a wonderful introduction to the Berlin Blockade, told through an exciting story with likeable characters." - Blogcritics.org Praise for David Downing "Full of striking inventions." "Kingsley Amis, author of Lucky Jim "A beautifully crafted and compelling thriller with a heart-stopping ending as John Russell learns the personal faces of good and evil. An unforgettable read." "Charles Todd, author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge Series "One of the most intelligent and persuasive realizations of Germany immediately before the war." " Wall Street Journal "In the elite company of literary spy masters Alan Furst and Philip Kerr ... [Downing is] brilliant at evoking even the smallest details of wartime Berlin on its last legs." " Washington Post " Downing distinguishes himself by eschewing the easy ways out. He doesnt shy away from portraying the cold brutality of the Third Reich, and his characters are far from stereotypes-theyre flawed, confused and real." -NPR From the Hardcover edition. Excerpt from Book February 11, 1948 They were on their way to bed when the two Russians arrived, but the lateness of the hour was apparently irrelevant--she and her sister were to come at once. She asked if they knew who she was, but of course they did. Refusal was not an option. Their destination was also secret. "Very nice house," the one with some German told them, as if that might make all the difference. He even helped her into the fur coat. Nina looked terribly scared, but the best she could do was squeeze her sisters hand as they sat in the back of the gleaming Audi. Soon the car was purring its way eastward along a dimly-lit and mostly empty Frankfurter Allee. The men in the front exchanged an occasional line in Russian, but were mostly silent. Like thousands of others shed been raped in 45, but only on the one occasion. The three soldiers had been too excited by her house and possessions to do more than satisfy their immediate lust. And now it was going to happen again. In a "very nice house." She could feel her sister quivering beside her. Nina had only been twelve in 45, tall for her age, but still with the chest and hips of a child, and the soldiers had left her alone. She had blossomed since, but was still a virgin. This was going to be so much harder for her. They were leaving the city behind, driving through snow-covered fields. Three years after the war, the road signs caught in the headlamp beams bore Cyrillic script, and she had only the vaguest idea where they were. Not that it mattered. They turned off the road up a tree-lined drive, and swung to a halt before a large three-storey house. There were soldiers on guard either side of the door, and another inside who gave them both a curious look. There was only one man in civilian clothes and he had a classic Russian face. This was an enemy camp, she thought. There wouldnt be anyone there to whom they could appeal. They were hustled upstairs and down a richly-carpeted corridor to a door at its end. One of their escorts tapped it lightly with his knuckles, then responded to words from within by pushing it open and ushering them inside. It was a large room, with several arm chairs and a large four poster bed. A fire was burning in the grate, and several electric lamps were glowing behind their shades, but the light was far from bright. She had never been in a brothel, but she imagined the better ones looked like this. And then she saw who it was, and her heart and stomach seemed to plummet. He was wearing a dressing-gown, and probably nothing else. The smile on his face was only for himself. After calmly locking the door, he walked to a table holding several bottles, poured himself a tumbler-full of clear liquid, and gulped half of it down. As he turned back to them the fire briefly glinted in his spectacles. " Zieh dich aus ," he said. Take off your clothes. "No," Nina almost whispered. "We must do as he says," she told her sister. Nina stared back at her. There was fear in her eyes, and pleading, and sheer disbelief. "Take me ," she begged him. "Shes only a girl, take me." If he understood her--and she thought he did--all it did was increase his impatience. They slowly stripped to their underwear, pausing there without much hope. He gestured for them to continue, then stared at their naked bodies. She watched his growing erection strain at the dressing gown, then finally break free. Ninas gasp made him smile. He took two steps forward, grabbed her wrist, and tugged her towards the bed. Nina jerked herself free and ran for the door, which rattled loudly but resisted her attempt to pull it off its hinges. As he crossed the room in pursuit, she tried to block his way, but he grabbed her by the arm and casually threw her aside. Nina grabbed a convenient ashtray, and hurled it in his direction. She didnt see where it struck him, but the grunt of pain as he doubled over left little room for doubt.. For a few brief seconds the world stood still. Then he gingerly walked to his desk, and took a gun from the drawer. "No," she screamed, scrambling towards him. He lashed out with the barrel, catching her across the cheek and putting her back on the carpet. Nina had sunk to her knees, and now he stood before her, his penis dangling in front of her face. He lifted her hair with the gun, and slowly walked around her, his erection returning. She thought he would force the sobbing girl to suck him off, but what could she do that wouldnt make things worse? And then he was had the barrel of the gun in the nape of Ninas neck, and his finger was pulling the trigger. There was no explosion, just a coughing sound, an almost derisory spurt of blood, a silent Nina crumpling onto the carpet. She tried to speak, to rise from the floor, but both were beyond her. He came across the room, gun in hand. Expecting to die, she felt almost disoriented when he pulled her up by her hair, and threw her face down on the bed. There was cold metal in the back of her neck, but his hands were wrenching her legs apart, and she knew there was one last thing to endure before she joined her sister. And then he was ramming himself inside her, and urgently pumping away. It only lasted a few seconds, and once he was out again, she lay there waiting for an end to it all, for the blackness the bullet would bring. It didnt come. After several moments his hands reached down for one of hers, and cradled it around the butt of the pistol. At first she didnt resist, and by the time she realised the implication, he had taken it back again. "Youre too famous to kill," he said in explanation. Crusaders The Russian was almost certainly lying, but John Russell had no intention of sharing this suspicion with his British and American employers. If there was one thing hed learnt over the last few years, it was never to divulge any information without first thoroughly assessing how much it might be worth in money, favours or blood. The British major and American captain who shared command of the Trieste interrogation centre seemed less inclined to doubt the Russian. A kind reading might have them lacking Russells suspicious nature, though one would have thought that a necessary qualification for intelligence officers. Being about half his age and coming from two different realms of Anglo-American privilege, they certainly lacked his experience of European intrigue. But having said all that, a third explanation for their naivety--that both were essentially idiots--seemed by far the most relevant. The Brits name was Alex Farquhar-Smith, and Russell would have bet money on a rural pile, minor public school and Oxford. At the latter he had probably spent more time rowing than reading, and only been saved from a poor Third by a timely world war. The Yank, Buzz Dempsey, was a Chicago boy with a haircut to suit his name, and a brashness only slightly less annoying than his English colleagues emotional constipation. Usually they spent most of their working hours getting up each others noses, but today they were both too excited. The source of their exhilaration was the tall, rather elegant, chain-smoking Soviet major sitting on the other side of the table. "I have some information about the Red Armys battle order in Hungary," Petr Kuznakov had casually mentioned on arriving in Trieste the previous day, as if unaware that such intelligence was the current holy grail of every American and British officer charged with debriefing the steady stream of defectors and refugees from Stalins rapidly coagulating empire. That had made Russell suspicious, as had the Russians choice of Trieste. Had his superiors calculated that the chances of encountering real professionals would be less in such a relative backwater? If so, theyd done their homework. The Russian lit another cigarette and said, for the fourth or fifth time, that the NKVD would be frantically looking for him, and that he would be of no use to "the great world of freedom Details ISBN161695373X Author David Downing Short Title MASARYK STATION Language English ISBN-10 161695373X ISBN-13 9781616953737 Media Book Format Paperback Pages 384 Series A John Russell WWII Spy Thriller Year 2014 Publication Date 2014-04-01 Series Number 6 Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2014-04-01 NZ Release Date 2014-04-01 US Release Date 2014-04-01 UK Release Date 2014-04-01 Place of Publication New York Publisher Soho Press Inc Imprint SohoCrime,US DEWEY 823.914 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. 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