Espionage thriller!

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The Berlin Exchange by Joseph Kanon   

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️



Always a sucker for a Cold War spy novel, especially East vs West Berlin and of course the infamous Checkpoint Charlie, along with John Le Carre’s Smiley and crew, remembrances beckoned me just from Kanon’s title. How could I resist this addition to a long held tradition? And let me just say I Ioved it. A smart and intricate plot. Martin is that quiet, intelligent character that I adore. He has hidden idealist’s past and hidden depths.
It’s 1963. American communist and Physicist, Martin Keller, is exchanged back into East Germany from Britain after ten years in prison for treasonous espionage. Fortunately he’d been caught in Britain and imprisoned there. If he’d been caught in the US it would have been the death penalty. The exchange is organized by his ex-wife’s husband, some sort of free lance wheeler and dealer, with links to the KGB and it seems, the Black Market. During the exchange an ambulance races past them attempting to crash the barrier into West Berlin. Shots are fired, and a death occurs. Martin finds himself wondering just who was the target of those shots?
Reunited with his ex-wife and son, all very weird, it’s not long before Martin realises that he doesn’t want to return to make weapons. It seems his ideology has taken a blow. Martin wants his son safely away from the East. But who to trust? How to make this happen? The Stasi is real. Who’s a friend and who’s waiting to turn him in? Talk about misdirection, about false information mixed in with truth, and of course, betrayal.
(BTW, I did not know that these swaps became big business for the DDR. Kanon explains in his Notes, “the swaps grew into an important revenue stream for the DDR…for some DM 3.4 billion ($850 million). Whatever the actual figures, there is no doubt that the swaps made a contribution to the DDR’s economic viability.” Fascinating! I also loved the cover.)

A Scribner ARC via NetGalley 
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change

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