Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

f you’re new to David Young’s novels, ‘Stasi Winter’ is book 5 in the Karin Muller series, with each book reading well on their own. Just be mindful that you may not have the full backstory of character relationships if you do read the books out of order.

‘Stasi Winter’ is written well. There is no doubt about that at all. It’s very clear that the author has researched his locations and finer details to ensure authenticity throughout, and I really did appreciate it. For me, however, I found the shell of the story to be a bit confusing and quite slow at times. I do realise that books of this genre require a slow build up to create more tension, and whilst the tension was definitely there, I would have liked the pace to speed up a bit more, rather than the characters to-ing and fro-ing as often as they did.

Despite the slow pace, I still found myself enjoying historical crime elements to the book, and I ended up being quite addicted to the ‘will they wont they?’ parts. It just goes to show that, under pressure, logistics go out of the window and peoples choices can often appear quite selfish.

What I love about this series is the fact that I can dip in and out of the books and still feel as though I’m part of the overall vibe when I come back to the stories at a later date.

Overall, an intriguing, well thought out novel that made Scottish weather seem like Summer!

Stasi Winter was a novel with a winter like no other, it was cold, in fact it was Arctic. Young’s brilliant descriptions of an East Germany swathed in an arctic chill, its sea frozen solid had you shivering as you read.

It formed such a wonderful backdrop to his story, as the elements conspired against his characters, and added an extra dimension to what was already a drama filled novel.

The characters, detectives Muller and Tilsner were new to me, as I was typically late to Young’s Stasi series, yet it didn’t make a difference. Hints of their backstory were littered throughout and I soon had a good idea of what made them tick.

Muller, the leader was quite fearless for a woman in such a controlled state as East Germany. You felt she had to be twice as good as the men around her to have got to the high rank of Major, yet she lost none of her femininity, motherhood always a priority, the force which pushed her and her commitment to the powers that be to safeguard her family.

But what of those not in authority, what about Young’s main protagonist Irma, pulled into the escape plans of her new love Dieter and his friends? Quite a mixed up young woman, again with a history in previous novels, but not something that hindered the reader.

I loved the way Young used her to question how far we would go for love, or was it infatuation that drove Irma to take such risks. The more she was drawn in, the more you sensed her regret, her trepidation and I admired her questioning nature, her sense of loyalty and willingness to try and do what was right. Young made you believe in this young woman, made you want her to have a happy ending and a life of freedom.

What you could not get away from was the tension that Young created, the fear that your every move was being watched, every conversation listened into. The constant fear that at any moment you could be dragged off to reform school to relearn the ways of the East German state. It gave the novel a claustrophobic feel, its characters forever on edge, never able to relax.

The notorious Stasi Police showed an organisation who would sacrifice anyone to save face and indeed protect their country as Young highlighted the power struggle between them and Muller.

In essence Stasi Winter was cold, chilling and brutal, it’s characters thrown to the mercy of the elements in a battle against crime and the east and the west. I loved it and shall be making sure I read the other novels in the series as well as hoping a new novel will not be long before it appears.

East Germany, 1979. The Deutsche Demokratische Republic is gripped in one of the coldest winters on record with dangerously low temperatures, ice and snow – conditions where the death of a woman in a snowdrift might not be considered suspicious, but rather ruled as an unfortunate weather-related accident.

However, when Major Karin Müller and deputy Hauptmann Werner Tilsner of the Republic’s Serious Crimes Department are dispatched to investigate, a seemingly unfortunately accident turns into a murder investigation.

Even more suspicious is the murdered woman’s identity – Monika Richter, the deputy director of Jugendwerkhof Prora Ost, a reform school where Karin was tasked to solve a previous case.

Full review available here: https://wanderingwestswords.wordpress.com/2020/01/18/stasi-winter-david-young/

Stasi 77 (book 4) finished with Karin handing in her resignation. And for several months she enjoys being with her family but it’s time for her to find a new job. Perhaps teaching police cadets would be a good use of her skills. However, she discovers that her resignation was not accepted and she’s still a Major in the People’s Police. Moreover, she’s wanted back to investigate a suspicious death in the far north of the country on the coast. It means revisiting a place both she and Werner Tilsner (her deputy) have been to before. Although this could be read as a standalone, I would recommend you read Stasi Child first as there are some characters from that book making a return appearance.
This is epic storytelling. Although the suspicious death is the reason for Müller’s involvement, she’d drawn into something much bigger – an audacious escape from East Germany. I read this over the Christmas holidays. Thankfully our winter so far is not as cold as the one East Germany faced in 1978/9. David Young admits he’s taken a bit of poetic licence and borrowed some elements from the incredibly severe winter of 1962/63 when the Ostsee or Baltic Sea really did freeze hard enough for people to walk on and escape to the West. Just goes to show how desperate people were to leave the Communist regime. And this desperation comes across loud and clear in Stasi Winter.
The escape was my favourite section of the book. It was chilling in more ways than one and incredibly tense. It was easy to imagine even though it was a whiteout due to the weather conditions and the escapees camouflaged in white bedsheets. I could appreciate the muffled stillness; the waves rearing up, not to crash onto the beach, but frozen in huge chunks; the panic of getting lost. David Young has created an amazing atmosphere and I still get shivers just thinking about it.
Without giving anything away, the ending leaves us nicely set up for more Karin Müller tales. There’s still another decade of East German Communism to go. Please keep writing, David!

'Stasi Winter' is the fifth book to feature the brilliant Karin Mueller. I have read, reviewed and loved each and every book of the series to date. As soon as I finish reading the current book, I immediately look forward to the next book in the series. I read the synopsis for 'Stasi Winter' and I became desperate to source a copy of the book. I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of the book and oh boy, 'Stasi Winter' is just as good, if not better, than the other books in the series. I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Stasi Winter' but more about that in a bit.
What can I say about Karin Mueller? I took to her from the start and when I started to read this book, I felt as though I had been reunited with an old friend. This book begins with Karin having left the People's Police. She has just had enough of the justice system and the controls that are placed on the citizens of the DDR. She wants to concentrate on her gorgeous twins and she wants to spend more time with her grandmother. However fate has something else in store for her and she is blackmailed into returning to her old role with the People's Police. Karin has been through the mill and then some. She was married but her husband was apparently killed. Karin doesn't have many if any friends and she sees more of her colleagues than she does her own family. Karin doesn't trust two of her close colleagues for reasons which are explained in the book. It's as if the system in the then East Germany pits colleague against colleague and everybody is suspicious and paranoid about each other.
It's no word of a lie when I say that I was hooked on this book from the moment I saw the cover of 'Stasi Winter'. I know that makes me sound very superficial but the bleak colours of winter grabbed my attention and the fact that the female character on the cover has ginger hair just sealed the deal as it were. As soon as I began to read, I felt that I had reunited with an old friend in Karin and that I had signed up for the People's Police again. The pages turned over increasingly quickly as my desperation to find out what happened just grew and grew. 'Stasi Winter' was one of those books that I both wanted and didn't want to finish. I was sad to reach the end of the story because I was enjoying the author's writing style, the characters, the place where the story is set and the storylines so much that I just didn't want the book to end.
I loved several things about this book. I loved the characters and I loved the place in which the story is set. I also love the fact that the Mueller series deals with fairly recent German history and has the occasional German phrase, which I even have to read out loud. I am a huge history nerd and I absolutely love reading anything to do with Germany. This book also allows me to use the German degree that I haven't used since the day I graduated. In fact I cannot think of one single thing that I disliked about this book.
'Stasi Winter' is brilliantly written but then I wouldn't expect anything else from the brilliantly talented David Young. David has a writing style that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. He writes in such a way that makes you feel as though you are part of the story yourself. That's how I felt at any rate. Through David's powerful and vivid descriptions of East Germany, I felt as though I got an insight into what the residents of East Germany had to endure on a daily basis and the trauma that came with families being split up because of 'Die Mauer' (that's the Berlin Wall to those that don't speak German) with some relatives in the West and others in the East. The story is told in chapters from the point of view of Karin, from the point of view of a young woman called Irma with the occasional chapter focusing on the higher up echelons of the regime. The different chapters interlink really well and the story flows seamlessly as a result.
In short, I absolutely, totally and utterly flipping well ADORED reading 'Stasi Winter' and I have no hesitation in recommending this author and this series to other readers. The Karin Mueller series just gets better and better and goes from strength to strength. I did hear a whisper that 'Stasi Winter' is the last book of the series but I sincerely hope that this is not the case and that I get to read more from Karin's case files as it were. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

4.5 stars
Stasi Winter is another superb addition to the Karin Miller series that was a very gripping read.

I always enjoy books set in the Cold War a I think it was a very interesting period in history. This story provides an interesting insight into the DDR when they were at the height of their powers. The author paints a frightening picture of a very uncertain time where residents were under constant surveillance and there were awful penalties when the rules were broken, even though these rules were unclear at times. I didn’t know much about the DDR so found these descriptions utterly fascinating.

The story is told from the point of view of two women Irma and Karin which gradually merge together in an intriguing way. Both women are strong characters but had flaws which made them seem realistic. I enjoyed following their story through the book and found that both stories were well developed.

This was a fast paced book which manages to be a murder enquiry and an adventure on the frozen North Sea. It’s a very exciting read which is incredibly atmospheric so that the reader can almost feel the cold and fear of the characters. Despite the era it’s set in, this isn’t a sad story as it also has an element of hope to the story which I thought was clever. I’m very excited to see where the series goes next.

Huge thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Zaffre for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

What a read! Real and difficult on most of the situations, this book is an eye-opening story of how was life during the cold war in Germany.
I’ll say from the beginning that it had been a little difficult to enter to the story, the names and places are in German and it took me a while to get used to the characters been called by their surname! But this doesn’t mean that the story was not great, because it had been interesting and curious to say the least.
This is the story of two women Herr Müller and Irma Behrendt, her life is run by the Stasi (it was the official state security service of the German Democratic Republic and it has been described as one of the most effective and repressive agencies ever to have existed). They always have to follow the Stasi commands risking their family lives if they don’t. They are on each side of a coin, Müller is a police officer trying to solve a case; Irma has a new boyfriend with a secret plan… Their lives crossed a few years ago, now they will cross again, but maybe this time none of them will survive…
I don’t like much history books, but in this case I have learned a secret side of the cold war that I wasn’t aware and I loved every page. I’ve read books about the second world war, but the cold war is always shared in the spies perspective, not the civilians and the repression they were living every day. The Stasi seemed to run the life of everyone, their movements and even when they were able to breath, I can understand the need to escape and cross the border, but as the book reminds, the Nazis where everywhere, they are even here, now!
What I can say about Stasi Winter? Only good things, the coldness of the story flows through the reader veins, afraid of the main characters life as the story arrives to the end. I would love to know more about the characters and how they continue on their paths but, at the same time I loved the ending, so I don’t know if I am ready for it! We’ll see if David Young decides to continue with the story…
For now, I can only say tell you to read the “Stasi Winter” before the ice melts down! 😉

There are so many different elements in this book that it’s hard to put down! I always forget that this series is technically historical as it is set back in 1978 during the time of the wall with Germany split in half. We are given a shocking insight into life for those in the East and the risks that some take to try and escape to the West.

I really loved the premise, Karin is pulled out of retirement into a case which looks like it was due to the weather, which we know must just be a cover story by the Stasi officials. The added feel of the ‘catastrophe winter’ definitely upped the stakes and added to the difficulty of trying to solve the case. Bringing back a character from one of the previous books was a really nice touch, especially making her a real focal point.

The last quarter of this book was filled with so much tension that I actually delayed my plans until I had finished the book.

One of the most intriguing elements of David Young’s Karin Müller/Stasi series is the sense that the writer enjoys mixing it all up. Young takes moments from the DDR’s inglorious past, blends it with some artistic license and adds elements of police procedural. Sometimes he has tackled big subjects such as courage, fear and trust, at other times the central plot has taken centre stage. As a result, despite a fairly regular cast of characters, this is a series that never feels formulaic, and you start each instalment genuinely curious as to what’s in store.

This time round, Young has reintroduced some of the characters that starred in Stasi Child. I went back to read Child, which was one of the series I’d previously missed out, and I do recommend that you read it first. The setting is again the northern edges of the Republic: the Baltic has frozen over during a terrible winter. It feels fitting that it is the elements that call into question the Stasi’s elaborate plans to counter Republikflucht: this most artificial of states up against natural hazards. Indeed, we get a (presumably accurate) account of the resources that were ploughed into keeping citizens imprisoned. That said, the fairly substantial part played in the plot by Stasi head Erich Mielke did feel at times overplayed.

Once again the themes of trust are right at the heart of the novel, which starts with Karin Müller being blackmailed into resuming her role at the head of the serious crimes department. To be honest, I’m not sure about how realistic this section is - has Müller really been sitting on her hands for months because one of her team was in the Hitler Youth? - but the situation is unnerving and makes the point immediately: no one really knows who holds power and as a result threats that are possibly empty are none the less taken seriously. Irma can’t know whether Karin really is her friend but then Irma has been crossing and double-crossing her own family for years: how she is able to trust anyone at all is beyond me.

There’s a big set piece action scene at the end (genuine heart-in-the-mouth stuff) but for me the highlight is the way in which Young gives us such an eerie atmosphere, contrasting so sharply with the location we got to know in Stasi Child.

There are two twists at the end, one of which I’m going to discuss now.

Spoilers follow

Despite everything, despite all she knows and all she’s seen, Karin Müller believes the DDR to be a force for good. I’ve found that to be a useful constant throughout this series, because without a sliver of optimism the series could too easily sink under its cynicism. But right at the end of the book, there’s a revelation: Müller’s ex-husband was not executed by the Stasi but was instead working as a Stasi agent in Austria. Stasi agent Jäger had shown Müller the place of her husband’s supposed execution, but now the Stasi were happy for Müller to read the letter from Irma stating that Gottfried was still alive. She interprets this as a measure of their control and their happiness in exerting their power over her, but it’s a tipping point. She thinks in her own mind of ‘the Wall’ rather than of the ‘Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier’.

A theme we’ve seen in other literature about the DDR is how initially-enthusiastic citizens became disillusioned over time, once they realised that the state would never live up to their idealistic hopes. I like what Young has done here, though: over time, he shows us, the hamfistedness of the Stasi and other agents of power hammered doubt even into the most ardent believers. Eventually belief gave way under that constant hammering, but you never knew which individual chip would break through. It’s a useful reminder when thinking about allegiance to any particular cause. But of course that is only part of the equation. Not everyone who harbours doubts explores them further, nor still acts on them. I am extremely interested to see what Young does next with Müller and her dissidence.

Powerful, thought-provoking and heart-stopping at times, Stasi Winter is a Cold War thriller worthy of the name.

Based during a bad winter in 1978/79 in East Germany, the Berlin Wall dividing East and West, the story focuses on a couple of women, a mother and daughter, whom are watched by and working for the “Stasi.” Coming back to employment after a murder investigation that took place 4 years previously, Müller takes on a more senior role that enables her to keep her home and be with her family. Another murder takes place, for which Müller and a team investigate.

The story does not so much focus on the murder at hand, it is more something in the background, but does focus in lots of detail on the complex life of Müller and Irma, the control of the East German government over them and the citizens and a small group of people trying to escape from the East to the West, via the murder that takes place.

Written as date/location entries within chapters, flitting between the story of what Irma and Müller are doing at their respective locations and lives, I did find a slight middle working out who’s perspective I was reading from a couple of times. The action in the story definitely takes place in the later chapters and towards the end of the book, leaving the creepy sense that despite escaping, the “Stasi” always have someone, somewhere watching you, if you are to be watched.

This 5th book in this series finds Müller again faced with difficult decisions in with regards to the Stasi. Resigned from her job and struggling to make ends meet and a young family and grandmother to care for, Karin is forced back into service to investigate a women’s death close to the Baltic Sea. Karin soon realises it’s not the accident the Stasi want it to be.

A seriously good murder mystery unravels, in a setting unprecedented in my reading, in the cold brutal setting of the Ostsee or Baltic Sea, which has frozen over precariously.

A cracking page turner, tense and full of suspense, it’s a real nail biter. Absolutely full of intrigue, the politics and the way Young describes the contrast between the then divided Germany is as usual skilfully and expertly done. David Young is certainly an author who can take you in to the era he is writing.

I enjoyed the scenes involving the nuclear powered icebreaker and found my self looking these up. A book full of interest.

The pacing as ever is perfect as this murder mystery spliced with almost an adventure twist barrels to a quite brilliant finale.

Without doubt, one of my favourite series currently being written I look forward to the release each year. David Young a writer going from strength to strength and each book is even better than the last.

I await book 6 with huge interest

Highly Recommended

This series just gets better and better.

This is episode 5 of this fascinating police and political procedural.

What sets it apart from others is the unusual location, combined with the ideology, bureaucracy and secrecy that Oberleutnant Karin Müller and her team have to deal with

In this story Müller has been called back to her duties with another unusual case this time set on the Baltic coast during one of the coldest winters of the GDR. Again the looming influence of the Stasi shadows Müller's enquiries and influences the investigation.

With great attention to period detail David Young takes you right back to a country that no longer exists but continues to fascinate so many. As a result, his books portrays a fascinating landscape where David Young’s research captures well the feel (and the smell!) of late 1970’s East Germany.

However, this is also a great crime novel with a richly detailed and complex female lead. There's a great twist at the end setting Müller up nicely for Young's sixth book of the series. I can't wait and I’m very much looking forward to the further adventures of Karin Müller.

If you like police procedurals, strong female characters, along with an Orwellian landscape then I highly recommend this.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review

Some book series feel like familiar clothes that may not appear fashionable to everyone but to you leave you feeling comfortable and the bees knees.
Stasi Winter is the 5th book in this series by David Young and without doubt, the best of an excellent group of books that uniquely focus on the DDR prior to the fall of the Wall and the re-unification of Germany.
It is a fascinating backdrop to set a novel against, and the author has honed his skills over these crime thrillers that centre on a female police officer, Karin Müller.
In Stasi Winter the thrust of the story centres around a freak event where the waters around East Germany make it possible for potential defectors to walk to freedom. However, this plot line is secondary to the mysterious death of an old women assumed to have collapsed and died of exposure.
Karin having previously resigned from her job, finds the Stasi will not allow her to leave the force. Indeed they commission her team to investigate this potential murder and ask her to risk all by going undercover.
A real page turner in the old fashioned sense of action and adventure. With thrills and suspense throughout and such duplicity by Karin’s arch enemy in the Stasi, who has plans beyond his authority to silence Müller for all time.
Terrorism and a nuclear incident are also woven into the story that makes this the best yet.
It is also fitting that with this particular book the author has come full circle with this project and returned to the issue of division between the two Germanys as symbolised by the Wall. Karin has always been a faithful advocate of the state’s politics but here we have further revelations and a softening of her position.
Can be read as a stand-alone.
Fans of these novels will be delighted and new readers to this author will be compelled to return to the start and discover this journey at first hand.

This is #5 in the series featuring Karin Müller, it can be read as a stand-alone but I feel you will be missing out on an amazing series.

Set in East Germany in 1979 and Karin Müller had retired but is brought back to work when a woman’s body is found. The state want this recorded as an accidental death, but Karin is determined to find the truth.

This is historical fiction at its best, a murder mystery, police procedural and politics. Full of adventure this is an immensely gripping read, so atmospheric you’ll feel the chill of winter.

Great characters and so much tension in a clever and engrossing plot to rival Robert Ludlum et al.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for a free ecopy of the book. This is my honest and unbiased review.

Stasi Winter, like it’s predecessors, is a tense, haunting and atmospheric read, David Young as ever bringing an evocative sense of time and place to proceedings and embedding the reader deep within the psyche of his characters.

As if the difficulties facing them at that point in history weren’t enough, the author throws a weather front into the mix, creating a chilly and unnerving layer to a murder mystery that turns into so much more….

I’m a close follower of this series, have been since the start and it was a pure delight for me to reenter Karin’s world. The ending promised so much and the read itself was addictively excellent, not that I expect any less from this author now. No pressure or anything.

Genuinely fantastic historical crime fiction. The whole series comes highly recommended from me.

“Stasi Winter” is the fifth novel by David Young to feature the investigations of Karin Müller, a detective in the East German People’s Police during the 1970s. Although it can be read as a stand alone, it deals with some characters from previous books (specially Stasi Child) so I suggest you read them in order to get more from them.

After her resignation from the police, Major Müller is force back into service to investigate what appears as an accidental death during a winter storm but it soon revealed to be a murder. The story begins as the usual murder investigation but halfway through turns into a thriller/adventures story that made me devour the pages. It’s the perfect mix of historical fiction and a police procedural.

“Stasi Winter” is a deeply atmospheric and haunting read. In this case not only the oppression of the state permeates the whole novel, but also the oppression of the weather, specially in the second half, keeping up the tension the whole time they’re on the ice. I could definitely feel the cold they were experiencing!

I find this a fascinating time and the author evokes perfectly the time, place and ideology, bringing to the front the despair some people endured during this years.

After that last revelation I can’t wait to go back to the DDR in the sixth book of the series.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bonnier Zaffre for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love this series and have read both Child and Wolf and both were five star reads. This read does not disappoint either. Historical Crime fiction par excellence. A police detective in the DDR and set in bleak midwinter of 78/79. The Baltic is almost frozen over and citizens are using it as an escape route. Muller is the detective who is sent to investigate a murder but like the rest of the citizens she is trapped on an island surrounded by ice. I love the atmosphere this writer creates. The way the citizens are treated and no one and I mean no one is safe. I also love the research this author does oft the Stasi series. You cannot have your own thoughts if you work for the Stasi or can you? Highly Recommended and another in this eye opening and gripping series.
I would like to thank the author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

Another episode in the Karin Mullen series of East German life behind the Berlin Wall. This time set in the coldest winter for years a seemingly straight forward case of accidental death becomes a murder case with the search for the perpetrators basically set on a somewhat depressing backdrop of cold and yet more cold! Nasty characters from previous episodes reappear still bent on making our heroines life difficult despite the knowledge she has against them. It all builds to a cold climax with the final pages revealing a further storyline for the next adventure!

Fascinating story about a Police detective in the DDR. Set during the bleak winter of 78/79 when the Baltic almost froze over. The story moves backwards and forwards to a denouement on the ice as some of the characters attempt to flee the DDR - you are not sure exactly which ones until the very end. Keeps you on the edge of your seat - well written and well researched as ever by David Young. Great read and by the way, you might want to wrap up warm whilst reading Stasi Winter - perfect for a cold winter evening!