Lehrter Station, David Downing
Lehrter Station, David Downing
List: $29.95 | Sale: $20.97
Club: $14.97

Lehrter Station

Author: David Downing

Narrator: Simon Vance

Unabridged: 10 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/01/2012


Synopsis

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.

About David Downing

David Downing grew up in suburban London. He is the author of the Jack McColl novels, the thriller The Red Eagles, and eight books in the John Russell espionage series, set in WWII Berlin.

About Simon Vance

Simon Vance is an award-winning actor and an AudioFile Golden Voice with over fifty Earphones Awards and thirteen prestigious Audie Awards. He was named Booklist’s very first Voice of Choice in 2008 and an AudioFile Best Voice of 2009.


Reviews

Goodreads review by David

John Russell and Effi Koenen return to Berlin in November 1945, after 6 months in London following their earlier escape from the Red Army. Russell has been forced into a dangerous double agent role with the Russians and the Americans, and quickly gets caught up with black marketeers, the Jewish exod......more

Goodreads review by Mark

When I spotted this at the library, I couldn't resist -- the latest in a series I fell in love with last year, about journalist/spy John Russell, living in Berlin before and after WWII. In this book, the Nazis have been defeated, Berlin is a surreal landscape of rubble and occupying armies, and Russe......more


Quotes

“Downing vividly portrays the poignant process of war-scarred Europeans struggling to rebuild lives in the ashes of a nearly destroyed city…A powerful look at the human side of postwar reconstruction.” Booklist

“Outstanding…Philip Kerr and Alan Furst fans will be pleased.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Downing does a masterful job of exploring life in postwar Berlin and London…impressive.” Library Journal