Dark days of the past haunt and beckon.

The Berlin Letters: A Cold War Novel by Katherine Reay    

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Improbable? Possibly not. When the wall dividing Berlin went up, the world gasped. When the wall came down the world was ecstatic.

Luisa Voekler is a baby when the wall interrupts lives. Her mother, Monica, throws Luisa across the razor wire to her grandparents. Monica attempts to follow, climbing through the wire. At the last minute she is noticed by the guards.

Luisa’s father Harris is a successful journalist in East Berlin, a true believer, a product of the benevolent state. It’s only years later he becomes a subversive.

Her grandparents take Luisa and flee to the states. It seems there is something about her grandfather that made him an asset to those there. He’s an expert cryptographer. Luisa’s grandfather taught her from a child to decipher riddles and codes. She even had to solve codes to find her birthday presents.

When older, Luisa trains with the CIA as an agent but she’s suddenly moved from that program working on budgets and now as an analyst. 

She stumbles upon letters that have envelopes with a symbol she recognizes. Hints left by her grandfather when they played at solving encryptions.

Luisa realizes her father is alive, detained by the Stasi, about to be transported to a prison far away. She goes to go to Berlin to bribe guards and obtain his release. Dangerous as it is, she’s compelled to do what she can. Anything could go wrong.

I found the ending, although heart stopping, just a tad to pat. 

An exciting Cold War thriller, set in places I recognize. 

A Harper Muse ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.