Having read Stasi Child, I was really interested to pick this up - as with the first book, there is an overwhelming menace about Stasi Wolf, indicative I guess of East Germany under communism.

After a set of twins is kidnapped in one of East Germany’s new, model towns, Karin Muller is sent to investigate, but in a covert manner as these things cannot possibly happen in the new People’s Republic! This secrecy threatens to derail the investigation, but what is ultimately revealed is a web of deception that has echoes of Karin’s early life in the brand new republic.

I think Stasi Child was a better book, but developments in the latter stages of this book have me eager to read the next book to see how Karin’s character and career develop….

I really enjoyed this second volume in the Oberleutnant Karin Muller series. Sure, it was farfetched and I had to stretch my believability factor quite a bit, but it was a summer read, and it sure was exciting.

Soviet Russia and it's Eastern Bloc nations fascinate me, and I'm not sure why. I'll eat up just about anything to do with the Soviet Union, from spy thrillers to nonfiction to police procedurals like this one. The politics in this era are confusing and nearly unbelievable in its complexity, and that's part of the draw. Having to solve a murder and kidnapping in an area in which the Stasi are forbidding certain necessary investigative actions to take place make this a conundrum of a puzzle, and it's one that that goes back several decades.

The more personal side of the plot with Ms. Muller touched me, too. I won't spoil that part of the plot, but I'm in the midst of doing what she did at the end of the book. I'm hoping that it turns out as well for me as it did for her.

Definitely going to continue this series!

this book lacked in a lot of ways for me, but the biggest was that the reader was just supposed to believe all those "coincidences" that allied in a miracles way to make the plot of this book as it is.
sadly that doesn't work for me at all.

tight plot with retro 80s feel from the DDR setting.

Hi Karen,
My next review is:-

"Stasi Wolf:A Gripping New Thriller For Fans of Child 44(The Oberleutnant Karin Muller series",written by David Young and published in paperback on the 9th February 2017 by Zaffre .416 pages. ISBN-13: 978-1785760686

East Germany, 1975. Karin Müller, sidelined from the murder squad in Berlin, jumps at the chance to be sent south to Halle-Neustadt, where a pair of infant twins have gone missing.

But Müller soon finds her problems have followed her. Halle-Neustadt is a new town - the pride of the communist state - and she and her team are forbidden by the Stasi from publicising the disappearances, lest they tarnish the town's flawless image.

Meanwhile, in the eerily nameless streets and tower blocks, a child snatcher lurks, and the clock is ticking to rescue the twins alive . . .

This story takes place only a couple of months after the events detailed in the authors previous book "Stasi Child" took place and Karen has had to accept a transfer from her duties in Berlin to another town but with very routine tasks and when she is chosen to lead an investigation into missing twins she is very keen to get back to some real investigative work. However, problems with the Stasi secret police wanting to oversee everything start to annoy Karin and she has to attempt a subterfuge in order to continue with her investigation.

There is a useful glossary included that explains some of the German names and titles used in the narrative which was very useful.

Many modern readers would not be familiar with the separation of Germany into two separate East (communist) and West (democratic) countries and the notorious Berlin Wall dividing them. However, as readers born after the Second World War will know this whole separation produced a whole industry of books devoted to espionage between the two. John Le Carr'e, Len Deighton and Ross Thomas and many others wrote many fine books exploring this theme.

The author has done a great deal of in depth research to get the historical details correct and I was very impressed with the mentions of the consumer products associated with East Germany that I had forgotten until he described them such as Wartburg and Trabant cars, Practica cameras and many foodstuffs that have almost become extinct after the reunification of Germany. The author has also captured the great mistrust between all levels of East German society and the spying of neighbour upon neighbour to report to the authorities any transgression.

The author spent his career in provincial newspapers followed by international radio and TV newsrooms. I was totally gripped by this wonderfully exciting historical thriller and I look forward to reading more of this exciting new authors books. Strongly recommended.

Best wishes,


Terry
(To be published in due course on eurocrime.co.uk)

A strong second novel which although has a returning set of characters can be read out of sequence. Even as a standalone novel, however, I am certain if you enjoy this book as much as I did you will be getting Stasi Child to read as soon as possible.
There is something about this period that adds a layer of menace to the intrigue and lowers the room temperature as you read into the book.
The protagonist is a young female detective, head of a murder squad in East Berlin. In book she managed to upset the secret police side of the system, the Stasi. She works for the people's police arm.
The Stasi want to shut down an investigation into abducted babies in Halle-Neustadt a model new community in their republic to minimise fear and panic which in turn could undermine the State.
They pick upon Karin, her reputation damaged as mentioned in book one to lead the case being part of an outside team doomed to fail in the Stasi's eyes.
Resented by the local police force and watched by the Stasi they have limited powers and resources to launch any proper investigation.
But slowly Karin brings people on-side and seems to be making some headway in the case. However not without threats to her life and career.
The move away from home and her recent relationship breakdown also gets her thinking about her own upbringing.
That some of the things in her own past have to be confronted in her present work and her own experiences as a Mother are challenged by similarities in the crimes being committed all adds to the tension.
The actual location with nameless streets and clear evil in this portrayal of the perfect society is beautifully explored.
I like the tension in Karin to want to love socialism and life in the DDR.
I loved the scene on the train when Karin tries to re-establish her authority over the investigation and realises she has been lied to and worse.
A clever plotted crime mystery packed with thrills and unexpected twists.
As a great detective Karin seems slow to recognise her own upbringing for what it was when the reader can so easily guess and later she is oblivious to why her personal health is compromised.
These are minor events into the wider weaving of this novel that dovetails brilliantly into an tapestry of continuos threads.

Pretty good crime mystery. Very interesting background given the story takes place in mid-1970s East Germany. Excellent depiction of the unique challenges a detective faced in Communist dominated East Germany. Good characterization. A little confusing in the second half as the book went back and forth several months/years in time.

David Young was a recent guest on my blog and we all enjoyed his story about his fake East German police car. I really liked his writing and his out-of-ordinary storytelling and decided to try his books. Stasi Wolf is second in the series. I haven’t read the first one, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying book number two. When you put David Young and out-of-ordinary plots together, you get a murder set up in 1975 in East Germany and a female detective to solve it. Perfect!

The story starts with the cruellest brutality that can happen to anyone, a rape. The World War II is over, Germany has been divided, The Soviet Union gets the East. Russian soldiers are the winners and they deserve a prize. German women are the prize. As much as we like to think of the partisans as good people (my both grandfathers were partisans, my mother’s father died in battle), we all know that in every nation there are good and bad people. There were saviours among the fascists, and there were rapists and robbers among the partisans.

Thirty years later, Karin Muller is in charge for the case of two missing baby twins. The communist government tries to hide the case, there is nothing in the newspapers, no one talks about it. Life is perfect. Just a small group of investigators work on the case.

In the same time, Karin is haunted by her own past. Raped as a student, she decides to abort her unwanted twins, a decision that puts her on the government’s blacklist. She has no support from her family, she has always felt like the unwanted child. But two memories haunt her most, a lady that visited her home long time ago and a childhood friend whose family was taken away by the government.

The case of the missing twins soon becomes a case of a murdered baby. The body of the missing baby boy has been found severely beaten. Is there a person so cruel to beat a newborn baby to death?

And where is the baby girl?

As a fan of detective stories and police procedurals, I really love this plot instalment. Set up in 1975 in East Germany, with Stasi included, this story has a great potential. The risk was worth it. The author did a good research for the time and the place (maybe lived there and then) and perfectly described the communist society. Castro’s visit to East Berlin was on June 13-th, 1972, which means three years earlier, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the book. Overall, it is a great story and it is nice to see something different and fresh (even set-up in 1975) in the section of crime fiction. Loved Karin as a leading character and will definitely be in search of the previous one and next books in the series.

Episode 2 of an excellent and unusually located police procedural set in the former East Germany.

Another outing for criminal investigator Oberleutnant Karin Muller, this time away from her hometown of Berlin to a difficult, and sensitive case in the politically sensitive new town of Halle-Neustadt.

Two newborn babies have been abducted from a local hospital, however Muller finds that her investigative options are limited by the Stasi in an effort to reduce any embarrassment to the authorities.

David Young knows East Germany well. There’s some great details that would appear insignificant to many not familiar with the period or the politics. As a result the book portrays a fascinating landscape where David Young’s research captures well the feel (and the smell!) of 1970’s East Germany.

It’s also a great crime novel with a richly detailed and complex female lead and I’m very much looking forward to the further adventures of Karin.
If you like police procedurals, strong female characters, along with an Orwellian landscape then I recommend this.

This book is a great mystery novel. Young babies being kidnapped and show up again either dead or alive. Karin has to find out what happened and is being transferred to the town of Halle Neu from Berlin. It is obviously some kind of retribution that she has to go there but it stayed unclear to me why exactly. A lot of politics or maybe something that happened in the first book I did not read. The town of Halle-Neustadt is really weird and scary. It made me so curious I looked up pictures.
The mystery of the disappearing babies is not the only problem Karin is having. The Stasi is deeply involved in the investigation and it is unclear why. As the secrets unravel the case becomes personal and endangers Karin and her companions eventually. The ties between all these people and all the different parts they play in the story get a bit to mixed which disturbed me a bit. I felt it would be enough if they would just play the one part, maybe a few with a double part but it felt as if all of them had more than one part.
I did like Karin as a character. In a very masculine environment she was a strong woman. Keeping her head up and not accepting nonsense. Franzie her chapters were very disturbing and confusing. I did not enjoy those very much.
There are some nice surprises in the book. Thing you do not see coming. Still it was possible to solve a few parts of the mystery yourself too, which I really like.
Though referred to a few times I was not disturbed in my reading by the fact I did not read the first book.

East Germany, 1975. Karin Müller, sidelined from the murder squad in Berlin, jumps at the chance to be sent south to Halle-Neustadt, where a pair of infant twins have gone missing.

But Müller soon finds her problems have followed her. Halle-Neustadt is a new town - the pride of the communist state - and she and her team are forbidden by the Stasi from publicising the disappearances, lest they tarnish the town's flawless image.


Meanwhile, in the eerily nameless streets and tower blocks, a child snatcher lurks, and the clock is ticking to rescue the twins alive . . .

This book is the second in the series - I never read the first but this one was so good I have brought both for my dad for his birthday.

Stasi Wolf, the second novel in the Karin Muller series by David Young, follows Oberleutnant Karin Muller on a new case. Set in 1975 communist Germany, she must determine the identity of a child snatcher when a pair of infant twins goes missing.

I am a fan of historical fiction so when I found this historical thriller, I knew I needed to pick it up! Equal parts police procedural and mystery; this fast paced journey had me on the edge of my seat.

I did not read the first book in the series (Stasi Child) but I did not struggle with reading this one as a standalone; Young is able to create a plot that is easy to follow and provides enough backstory that I had no issue connecting to Karin Muller. I, in fact, really enjoyed this character. I am always a fan of a strong, female protagonist and Muller does not disappoint. Complex and smart, Muller is a “no funny business” kind of character and watching her as she resists and evades the Stasi was truly entertaining.

Young does a suburb job at creating a snapshot of this repressive culture during this time period. The paranoia, the propaganda and the fear, Stasi Wolf has an ominous tone from the first page.

The narration of this novel was one of the most intriguing parts of Stasi Wolf. The novel is told in sections alternating between the third person narration following Karin Muller as she investigates and a first person narration of an unnamed, young woman. There are also sections of narrations that bring us back through time to Karin’s childhood; I loved these sections!

I did struggle a bit with the timeline of the plot; there are quite a few moments where the narration goes back in time. These are clearly labelled in the chapter title but it didn’t feel like there was any particular flow; instead, it felt jagged (for example, a chapter could go back 2 months and then the next chapter goes back 8 months) and I was left feeling confused. I feel like I would have enjoyed this more if the flashbacks would have been linear.

Nonetheless, I will be going back to read the first book in this series and will be anxiously awaiting the next instalment. Fans of historical fiction will love this novel; however, if the past is not your thing, then you will probably want to skip it.

Karin Müller returns and I couldn’t be happier. Last year I had the opportunity to read David Young’s debut novel Stasi Child and I loved it. The story was set in 1970’s East Berlin and was a refreshingly different spin on a police procedural story.

Now Müller returns in Stasi Wolf and we find that the events in Stasi Child have resulted in her being sidelined by her department. She is frustrated by the lack of opportunities she is given to rebuild her career and finds herself interviewing petty criminals (necessary work for the State but a task well beneath her skill level). NB I should highlight that Stasi Wolf can be read as a stand-alone novel and it is not necessary to have read Stasi Child first…though I would absolutely recommend that you read both.

The disappearance of twin babies in the new town of Halle-Neustadt gives Karin a chance to head up a new investigation team and start to rebuild her career – not that she will have much option in turning down the request she investigates, that’s not how it works in East Berlin! Karin heads to Halle-Neustadt but she will find the experience rather challenging; the geography of the new town is somewhat unique (with just a single street in the whole town having a street name). There is also a tricky problem to overcome, keeping the good name of the town intact means she cannot publicise the fact that she is investigating a double kidnapping – so how can she be expected to make any enquiries?

There are a number of flashback moments in the story which take us back some 10 years prior to Müller’s investigation. While it is not immediately clear why this jump is being made (obviously it will become clear) the ‘quirky’ characters that we follow made me want to keep reading to discover their relevance.

Once again David Young has crafted an engaging story which I found utterly compelling and wholly absorbing. I know nothing of 1970’s Germany but the world was expertly woven around me as I read Stasi Wolf. The constant awareness that Karin’s every move could be under scrutiny by the State gives a detective thriller the additional feel of reading a spy novel.

Müller is a great lead character and we get to see her really developed in this novel. Her private life is explored to give her life beyond her job and we get to learn something of her childhood and see some events which may have shaped her into the woman she has become.

David Young can tell a cracking story, Stasi Wolf should be on your reading list.

Of both Stasi Child and Stasi Wolf: see link below

I came across David Young’s first novel Stasi Child in 2015 and was immediately captivated by the idea of crime in East Germany, particularly the scenario of the first novel. I’ve waited eagerly for the follow up and it’s out at last.

So, what’s it about? Stasi Wolf begins with Oberleutnant Karin Muller sidelined from her job as head of the Murder Squad, instead dealing with low level, petty misdemeanours by disrespectful pseudo hippies. Muller receives an offer for a transfer to Halle Neustadt, a model East German city where twin babies have been abducted. She accepts because even as an Oberleutnant, she will outrank the local uniformed police to head up the murder enquiry.

Although she energises the local police team, the city’s Stasi officers constantly place restrictions on the investigation that appear almost designed to make their work ineffective – no public campaign, no searches, and most importantly, no contact at all with any of the people on “this list”. The investigating team always feel the influence of the Stasi through Major Malkus and Hauptman Jankowitz, who constantly set boundaries on the investigation and affirm this with warnings of the consequences of disobedience.

There is also a sub plot of Muller’s relationship with her family, her memories of a difficult childhood and the feeling that she never had the same depth of warmth and love from her parents that she saw her siblings receive. And finally, some love interest too – Doctor Emil Wollenburg has also been transferred to Halle Neustadt, although I’m sure other readers will wonder whether he is a covert Stasi agent sent to keep an eye on Karin.

So, what did I think? Well, as soon as I heard of the novel I was on the internet to find out more about Halle Neustadt and I found lots of interesting articles as well as some fascinating film clips on YouTube. So, once I started reading the novel, it was almost like a familiar place and I could visualise the huge apartment blocks and the layout of the city, which was driven by quite progressive planning principles such as easy and close access to parks, open space and public transport. Surprisingly, there were no street names, only numbers, which sounds like an interesting idea, but in practice was plain bonkers, especially with the uniformity of the buildings and inconsistency of the numbering system.

Halle Neustadt was a young people’s city and there are scenes in the book of happy everyday life such as mothers out with children in a genuinely social environment that makes the city quite an attractive place. Despite this, there’s a practical downside – the scarcity of everyday consumer goods, the appalling levels of pollution from nearby chemical factories and the pervasive presence of the Stasi in nearly all aspects of everyday life. Karin is under surveillance, literally from the moment she arrives in the city, when her car is followed by a black Skoda. There’s also that constant guessing about who could be a Stasi informant – this sounds like its paranoia, but by 1989 the Stasi its estimated there were up to 2,000,000 Stasi collaborators and that the Stasi maintained files on approximately 6,000,000 East German citizens—more than one-third of the population. At one point in the story, a Stasi officer tells Muller that a comment she made as a young girl over 20 years ago, is noted on her file – typifying the level of surveillance and monitoring that East German citizens endured. However, one of the best things about the novel is that it’s not a polemic about how bad East German life was – the narrative just gives you the facts about daily life, “warts and all”, expertly woven into the fabric of a good crime story.

Final verdict – Great concept, great writing, great story. Buy the book!

I love the setting and the atmosphere in this series! 1970s East Germany is very well portrayed and the main characters, especially Karin, are sympathetic and satisfactorily multi-dimensional. The ending to Stasi Wolf, though, was a bit too melodramatic for my taste. Very enjoyable read, though, and I'll be back for more!

This was a really interesting read. I enjoyed the glimpses into a government long gone and hoe they operated. The plot was easy to follow and I liked how the story made this time and the places more real. For all of that I think this i a book worth reading. I had a slight problem with all the German ranks and found it somewhat difficult to read, it took away some of the reading flow. But asides of that it was I book I would gladly recommend to everyone interested in crime novels and historical books.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre!