At the end of the war, Berlin was a mess. Children wandered the streets, people were starving, and anything could be had for a cigarette. Add to the mix thousands of soldiers, all of them bored, and you have a recipe for depredation. "‘The ruins turned us all into rats … The self can be pretty vile if let off the leash.’ All those feral children. All that hunger and starvation. It must have been a feeding frenzy for someone like Blackburn. He wouldn’t have been alone either. Men like that recognized each other, hunted in packs, and protected each other. . . It was like stepping into hell. The problem is, some men like hell."

Some of those predators were officers and they turned a lodge into a true den of iniquity, some of them preying on children. But someone else was writing down the names of the worst, and many of those same men went on to high-level careers in government. Throw in those who want to sabotage the glasnost talks about reducing nuclear weapons and you have a rather incendiary mix.

Major Tom Fox is sent to Berlin to bring back a former defector. It was to be a simple mission. He has none of the above information, but soon it's apparent that someone wants the defector dead and Tom, too. But, most of all they want the memoirs the defector had been supposedly writing as he had the list of names. Fox is caught in a vice but has no idea who's turning the screws. When his children is kidnapped to coerce his cooperation, things get desperate.

This book will suck you into it as it races to the conclusion. I have already ordered Grimwood's other book. Superior spy novel. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2018/12/review-of-nightfall-berlin-by-jack.html ( )

Nightfall Berlin – A Proper Spy Thriller

This is one of the best thrillers I have read in a long time. This is a tale set in the grim era of the cold war, just as the war was beginning to thaw. Set in East Berlin the full greyness of being on the Eastern side of the wall comes through. The publisher’s blurb on the front is correct for once, it really is a fine book and those that love vintage Le Carre are in for a real treat.

Major Tom Fox is on a rare holiday in the Caribbean with his wife and son, when he receives a call recalling him to work. He has to fly direct to West Berlin where he will be briefed and then he will bring a former British defector Sir Cecil Blackburn back to Britain, along with his memoirs. Easy he thinks, a bit of babysitting across and no trouble.

When Sir Cecil changes his mind, Fox turns up to find Sir Cecil suffered a violent death and his Stasi/KGB minder is dead at the door. The memoirs are ashes in the fire, but he manages to save a list before dashing away before the police turn up. He knows he cannot go back to his state-run hotel, and when he becomes a chief suspect, he knows the wolves will be out hunting for him. A spy in an unfriendly country being hunted by all sides is not the best position to be in when your life is in danger.

Matters take a turn for the worse, when his son, Charlie, is kidnapped in an attempt to force even more pressure on Fox to hand over Blackburn’s memoirs. In an attempt to stay alive, and keep his son alive, he has to make friends with people you would not necessarily trust your life with.

One thing is clear to Fox, he is alone, facing certain death, in a closed city where everyone is monitored, and it is only time before his hunters track him down and kill him.

Nightfall in Berlin will become a modern spy classic. ( )