David Downing Knihy

"Germany, 1933. The world is not yet at war, but the influence of the Nazi party is spreading like wildfire through Berlin. The prequel to the bestselling Station series introduces us to John Russell, an Englishman with a political past who must keep his head down as the Nazis solidify their power. The Reichstag parliament building has burned down, just four weeks after Hitler's appointment as German Chancellor. The torching will be used to justify the Nazi reign which followed. John Russell's recent separation from his wife is threatening his right to reside in Germany, and any meaningful relationship with his six year-old son Paul. He has just secured work as a crime reporter on a Berlin newspaper, and three of the stories with which he becomes involved--the gruesome murder of a rent boy, the apparently accidental running over of a professional genealogist, the suspicious disappearance of a Nazi-supporting celebrity fortune-teller--may not look alike in any way, but are seemingly connected. All these investigations carry the risk of Russell falling foul of the authorities at a time when the rule of law has completely vanished and the Nazis are running scores of pop-up detention centres complete with torture chambers in every corner of Berlin"--

Los Angeles, 1953. It has been five years since British journalist John Russell struck a deal with a high-ranking Soviet official, relieving Russell of his duty as double-agent for Soviet and American intelligence. Now Russell lives a life of relative comfort in Los Angeles. He has just begun work on a book investigating American firms, when he notices someone is tailing him. Has someone not taken kindly to his research?

Traces the development of the acting career of Robert Redford, analyzes his performances in motion pictures, and discusses his debut as a film director

An England vs. Germany football match is one of the most passionate and controversial sporting events there is—whether it's a club match or international. In this book, David Downing examines the history of such clashes, unearthing the stories, the statistics, and the footballing trends.

Convincing alternative history of the Second World War The Third Reich's real options How the fall of Moscow changes the course of the War

April, 1945. The Third Reich is on the verge of extinction, and its enemies are already plotting against each other. For John Russell, this has personal importance: his son and girlfriend are trapped in Berlin and only the Soviets can get him in there. But the price of their help will threaten both his and the world's postwar future.

In April 1945, Hitler’s Reich is on the verge of extinction. Assaulted by Allied bombs and Soviet shells, ruled by Nazis with nothing to lose, Berlin has become the most dangerous place on earth. John Russell’s son Paul is stationed on the Eastern Front with the German Army, awaiting the Soviets’ final onslaught. In Berlin, Russell’s girlfriend Effi has been living in disguise, helping fugitives to escape from Germany. With a Jewish orphan to care for, she’s trying to outlast the Nazis. Russell hasn’t heard from either of them since fleeing Germany in 1941. He is desperate to find out if they’re alive and to protect them from the advancing Red Army. He flies to Moscow, seeking permission to enter Berlin with the Red Army as a journalist, but when the Soviet’s arrest him as a spy, things look bleak—until they find a use for him that has him parachuting into Berlin behind German lines.

Paris, November 1945. John Russell is walking home along the banks of the Seine on a cold and misty evening when Soviet agent Yevgeny Shchepkin falls into step alongside him. Shchepkin tells Russell that the American intelligence will soon be asking him to undertake some low grade espionage on their behalf--assessing the strains between different sections of the German Communist Party--and that Shchepkin's own bosses in Moscow want him to accept the task and pass his findings on to them. He adds that refusal will put Russell's livelihood and life at risk, but that once he has accepted it, he'll find himself even further entangled in the Soviet net. It's a lose-lose situation. Shchepkin admits that his own survival now depends on his ability to utilize Russell. The only way out for the two of them is to make a deal with the Americans. If they can come up with something the Americans want or need badly enough, then perhaps Russell will be forgiven for handing German atomic secrets over to Moscow and Shchepkin might be offered the sort of sanctuary that also safeguards the lives of his wife and daughter in Moscow. Every decision Russell makes now is a dangerous one.

In the fall of 1941, Anglo-American journalist John Russell is still living in Berlin, tied to the increasingly alien city by his love for two Berliners: his fourteen-year-old son Paul and his longtime girlfriend Effi. Forced to work for both German and American intelligence, he's searching for a way out of Germany. Can he escape and take Effi with him?