Thank you to Net Galley and Soho Books for providing an early copy of Union Station by David Downing

The eighth book featuring journalist/spy John Russell carries the reader to 1953 where Americans and especially Hollywood are dealing with the menace of McCarthyism while Russia/West Germany/East Germany are scrambling to establish new norms following the death of Joseph Stalin. While a background in Russell's previous missions and relationships are helpful, Union Station can be read on its own as a compelling and often harrowing comparison of Joseph McCarthy's tactics and the not-so-long in the past horrors of Nazi Germany.

As a journalist, John is currently involved in two projects that will eventually align. In researching candidates for a local congressional seat, he uncovers a connection between one of the candidates and a young German man who was present during the Nazi development of race laws against Jews and supporter of the Ku Klux Klan. Could an attempt on John's life be traced to this candidate?

John's actress wife, Effi, has been asked to attend a Berlin film festival where she will speak on her involvement with previous German film making. This invitation brings the Russells to Berlin where John will use his specialized skills to aid in the rescue of a close friend's daughter.

The action never lets up in this intelligent, gripping set of circumstances that lead John Russell to the premise that the entire world is on edge and American life is not the dream sequence that many believe.

In this fascinating historical thriller, British journalist John Russell is adrift in a McCarthy-era Los Angeles, having left a life of international spying behind him—until his research into a wartime conspiracy brings him face-to-face with the perilous instability of a post-Stalin Berlin.

Los Angeles, 1953. It has been five years since 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 alongside his wife, Effi, a star on an American sitcom, and their adopted daughter, Rosa, a young artist on the cusp of adulthood.

This was an enjoyable mystery. Russell is a likable and astute character and you root for him and his family. I do feel like it is almost miscategorized as a thriller, as it has elements of le Carre but misses the mark in that respect.