From bestselling author David Downing, master of historical espionage, comes a heart-wrenching depiction of Germany in the days leading up to World War II and the difficult choices of one man of conviction. In April 1938, a man calling himself Josef Hofmann arrives at a boarding house in Hamm, Germany, and lets a room from the widow who owns it. Fifty years later, Walter Gersdorff, the widow’s son, who was eleven years old in the spring of 1938, discovers the carefully hidden diary the boarder had kept during his stay, even though he should never have written any of its contents down. What Walter finds is a scathing chronicle of one the most tumultuous years in German history, narrated by a secret agent on a deadly mission. Josef Hofmann was not the returned Argentinian immigrant he’d said he was-he was a communist spy under Moscow’s command to try to reconnect with any remnants of Germany’s suppressed communist party. Hofmann’s bosses believe the common workers are the only way to stop the German war machine from within. Posing as a railroad man, Hofmann sets out on his game of “Russian roulette,” approaching Hamm’s ex-party members one at a time and delicately feeling out their allegiances. He always knew his mission would most likely end in his death, and he was satisfied to make that sacrifice for the revolution if it could help stop Hitler and his abominable ideology. But as he grows close to the Gersdorffs, accidentally stepping into the role of the father Walter never had, Hofmann begins to wish for another kind of hope in his life.

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.

The third Jack McColl espionage thriller by David Downing (also the author of the WWII Station series) brings together two lovers in Bolshevik Russia. Winter 1917: As a generation of Europe’s young men perish on the Eastern and Western fronts, British spy Jack McColl is assigned a sabotage mission deep in Central Asia, where German influence is strong. As he quickly realizes, the mission only becomes more dangerous the closer he gets to its heart. Meanwhile, the woman he loves, Irish-American suffragette journalist Caitlin Hanley, is in Bolshevik Russia, thrilled to have the chance to cover the Revolution. Caitlin knows Moscow is where she is meant to be during this historic event-even if she is putting her own life at risk to bear witness. But four years of bloody war have taken their toll on all of Europe, and Jack and Caitlin’s relationship may become another casualty. Caitlin’s political convictions have always been for progress, feminism, and socialism-often diametrically opposed to the conservative goals of the British Empire Jack serves. Up until now, Jack and Caitlin have managed to set aside their allegiances and stay faithful to each other, but the stakes of their affair have risen too high. Can a revolutionary love a spy? And if she does, will it cost one of them their lives?

Berlin, early 1948. The city, still occupied by the four Allied powers, still largely in ruins, has become the cockpit of a new Cold War, and as spring unfolds its German inhabitants live in fear of the Soviets enforcing a Western withdrawal. Here, as elsewhere in Europe, the legacies of the War have become entangled in the new Soviet-American conflict, creating a world of bizarre and fleeting loyalties, a paradise for spies. John Russell works for both Stalin’s NKVD and the newly created CIA. He does as little for either as he can safely get away with, and between the tawdry tasks they set him–assessing dubious defectors in Trieste, running a spy ring in a Berlin VD clinic, rescuing ex-Nazis who might prove useful from Czechoslovakia–he seeks a way to cut himself loose. His partner Effi Koenen has an easier time, starring in a popular radio series and looking after their adopted daughter Rosa, until a woman she helped save in the War turns up on her doorstep, and admits to a child she left behind all those years before, a child now trapped behind the new Iron Curtain.

The follow-up to Jack of Spies, Soho’s lead Spring ’14 title. Jack McColl, a Scottish car salesman who moonlights as a spy for His Majesty’s Navy, takes readers on an epic adventure across the world on the eve of World War One. India, 1915. Jack McColl is on a reconnaissance mission to better defend the British Empire against Bengali terrorists and their German allies. In England, meanwhile, Jack’s former lover Caitlin Hanley witnesses the execution of her brother for a treasonous plot which Jack helped foil. His execution has only intensified Caitlin’s involvement in the cause of Home Rule. An uprising in Dublin will bring Caitlin and Jack back together as lovers–and enemies. Follows the paperback release of Jack of Spies, as well as a specially commissioned and designed paperback reissue of all 6 of the Station series books. Primed by David Downing’s upcoming first-ever US tour, getting him into more stores and augmenting his fan base. David Downing is not only one of Soho Crime’s cult bestsellers, with sales of his Station series mushrooming every year, but also a critical darling. Set in a provocative moment in history and depicts the Irish Republican movement, the American suffrage movement, Indian uprisings against the British Raj, the rise of German antagonism, and other fascinating historical handles. Praise for Jack of Spies An IndieNext Selection A PW Top 10 Mysteries & Thrillers Pick A Library Journal Editor’s Pick “[Downing] is a master at bringing the past to life through the careful and often loving observation of even minor players and through the artful deployment of specific detail.”– The Wall Street Journal “Moves along briskly and offers interesting facts about events now a century past . . . Always entertaining.” –The Washington Post “I can already see Gerard Butler in the lead role of the film version.” –Parade “[Downing ] is smart and erudite, with a knack for fully-rounded characters and atmospheric but unfussy prose . . . a ripping good tale.” –The Seattle Times David Downing grew up in suburban London. He is the author of Jack of Spies, as well as six books in the John Russell espionage series, set in WWII Berlin: Zoo Station, Silesian Station, Stettin Station, Potsdam Station, Lehrter Station, and Masaryk Station. He lives with his wife, an American acupuncturist, in Guildford, England. Marketing and Publicity National publicity campaign with a focus on crime and fiction reviewers both print and digitally. The second in the series, ONE MAN’S FLAG will build on the success of JACK OF SPIES. Digital outreach through Facebook and Twitter. $100,000 marketing budget. Pre-publication digital/print advertising across trade venues. Multi-stage consumer digital/print advertising: One month out and on pub, commercial and mystery publication focus. 3 National market, consumer-facing, solo print ad, minimum. Featured galley at ALA Annual and BEA 2015. Espiongae targeted Facebook and AdWords advertising. Consumer-facing pre-pub galley distro via Goodreads. IndieBound White Box mailing.

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.

The second in David Downing’s critically acclaimed WWII espionage series

It’s the summer of 1939. British journalist and longtime Berlin resident John Russell has just been granted American citizenship when his girlfriend, Effi, is
arrested by the Gestapo. He had hoped his new nationality would allow him to stay safely in Germany with Effi and his son, but now he’s being blackmailed. To
free Effi, he must agree to work for the Nazis. Can he turn this situation to his advantage?

In the fall of 1941, two years into World War II, British journalist John Russell is still living in Berlin with his fourteen-year-old son, Paul, and his longtime girlfriend, Effi, a German movie star. One of a handful of much-censored foreign journalists,
Russell is investigating a story that he can’t publish from inside Germany: What’s happening to the Berlin Jews who are being shipped east? His search for the answer brings him into proximity with the local communist underground and involves him in a celebrity murder.

In the fourth and final installment of David Downing’s spy series, Jack McColl is sent to Soviet Russia, where the civil war is coming to an end. The Bolsheviks have won but the country is in ruins. With the hopes engendered by the revolution hanging by a thread, plots and betrayals abound. London, 1921: Ex-Secret Service spy Jack McColl is in prison serving time for assaulting a cop. McColl has been embittered by the Great War; he feels betrayed by the country that had sent so many young men to die needlessly. He can’t stomach spying for the British Empire anymore. He’s also heartbroken. The love of his life, radical journalist Caitlin Hanley, parted ways with him three years earlier so she could offer her services to the Communist revolution in Moscow. Then his former Secret Service boss offers McColl the chance to escape his jail sentence if he takes a dangerous and unofficial assignment in Russia, where McColl is already a wanted man. He would be spying on other spies, sniffing out the truth about MI5 meddling in a high-profile assassination plot. The target is someone McColl cares about and respects. The MI5 agent involved is someone he loathes. With the knowledge that he may be walking into a death trap, McColl sets out for Moscow, the scene of his last heartbreak. Little does he know that his mission will throw him back into Caitlin’s life-or that her husband will be one of the men he is trying to hunt down.

World War II is nearly over. For the Russians, the enemy is no longer Nazi Germany, but the American behemoth that threatens to topple the Communist revolution. Deep within the walls of the Kremlin, Stalin’s top man hatches a brilliant plan that will alter the course of postwar history-and it’s all based on a deception as simple as the shell game. Five years later, an atomic bomb detonates deep within the borders of the Soviet Union, stunning the experts who had predicted that Russian science could not produce such a devastating weapon for at least another generation. The Red Eagles traces the adventures of two spies, Jack Kuznetzky and Amy Brandon, as they track down the most deadly force in the world while hiding their true allegiances and intentions from their compatriots. They are the “”red”” eagles, sent to America by one of its enemies to steal the greatest secret of all: the key to producing the atomic bomb. Critically acclaimed spy thriller writer David Downing draws fascinating portrayals of Stalin and Hitler as they determine the fate of the world, drawing us at breakneck speed from the Kremlin to Berchtesgaden, from Manhattan and Washington to Tennessee ad Louisiana, from Cuba to Sweden and New Zealand. And so the question remains unanswered to this day: how did the Russians produce the bomb so quickly? In The Read Eagles, Downing has created a story that will not only provide the ultimate clue, but also satisfy the most demanding thriller devotee.

February 27, 1933. In this stunning prequel to the John Russell espionage novels, the Reichstag parliament building in Berlin is set ablaze. It’s just a month after Hitler’s inauguration as Chancellor of Germany, and the Nazis use the
torching to justify a campaign of terror against their political opponents.

John Russell’s recent separation from his wife threatens 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 for a Berlin newspaper, and the crimes
which he has to report–the gruesome murder of a rent boy, the hit-and-run death of a professional genealogist, the suspicious disappearance of a Nazi supporting celebrity fortune-teller–are increasingly entangled in the wider
nightmare engulfing Germany.

Each new investigation carries the risk of Russell’s 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 centers, complete with torture chambers, in every
corner of Berlin.

As the Nazi hold tightens over Germany in 1939, British journalist John Russell is living in Berlin, where he has spent fifteen years working as a freelancer.
Despite his hatred for fascism and the signs of coming war, Russell is determined to stay in Berlin to be near his son, Paul, and his long-time girlfriend, the German
film actress Effi Koenen. For paying work, which has become hard to find, Russell agrees to take on jobs that take him increasingly deeper into a web of espionage.
When British, Soviet, and Nazi intelligence all attempt to recruit him, Russell is dragged into the murky world of warring intelligence services.