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WORK TITLE: Stasi Child
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1958
WEBSITE: http://stasichild.blogspot.com/
CITY: Hull, England
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1958, in England.
EDUCATION:Attended Bristol University and Bristol Polytechnic; City University London, M.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Former journalist with newspapers, a news agency, and BBC World Service.
AWARDS:Endeavour Historical Dagger for best historical crime novel of 2016, Crime Writers Association, for Stasi Child.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
David Young, author of a series of crime novels set in 1970s East Germany, began writing fiction after a long career in journalism, including twenty-seven years with the BBC World Service. “By the end, I was fed up and wanted to get out,” he told David Roy in an interview for Belfast, Northern Ireland’s Irish News. “I turned to novels as an escape route.” His setting was inspired by travel in a reunified Germany, largely in what was East Germany. In Berlin, he told Roy, “I was stuck by how you can still see the imprint of the old East Germany in the city.” He wrote the first novel in his series, Stasi Child, for a master’s degree program at City University London, which requires students to produce a novel in order to receive a degree. The book drew the interest of a literary agent, who found a publisher for it.
Stasi Child
Set in East Berlin in 1975, the novel introduces Karin Müller, a homicide detective who is the highest-ranking woman with the city’s People’s Police. One night she arrives at the Berlin Wall to investigate the murder of a teenage girl who was found shot to death there. At the crime scene she encounters Klaus Jager, an official from the Ministry for State Security, or “Stasi,” the East German government’s powerful intelligence service. Jager informs her that she is to assist him, and he asserts that the girl was going from West Berlin to East Berlin, the opposite of the direction taken by most who seek to cross the wall illegally. This raises questions in Karin’s mind, and she soon finds evidence to the contrary, but Jager tells her to focus on identifying the victim, not finding the killer. While dealing with the corrupt and repressive machinery of the state, she is also going through personal problems–her teacher husband, Gottfried, has run afoul of East German authorities and been dispatched to teach at a reform school. Karin is generally a supporter of her nation’s communist government, but as the story proceeds she develops a more skeptical attitude.
Several reviewers found Stasi Child a compelling thriller. “The plot is cleverly complicated, but easy enough to follow leaving readers so curious that the novel is so hard to put down,” remarked George Francis, writing online at Literature Works. He dubbed the novel “an incredible debut.” At the Criminal Element Web site, Chris Wolak praised the book’s atmosphere as well as its action, saying: “Balanced with the general dread and paranoia of East German life are specifics that’ll make you want to put down the book to look up images on the internet (but after just one more chapter).” A Publishers Weekly critic called Stasi Child “outstanding.”
Stasi Wolf
In the scries’ second entry, taking place a few months after the first, Karin is sent from Berlin to the newly constructed town of Halle-Neustadt to investigate the abduction of infant twins. The East German government wishes to present the nation as largely crime-free, so it wants the case closed as quickly as possible. Joining her is her deputy, Werner Tilsner, who has ties to the Stasi, so Karin knows she is being watched. Eventually one of the twins is found dead and the other alive, but another kidnapping occurs, and Karin must keep searching for the perpetrator. She discovers the crimes may be related to a long-ago event.
Stasi Wolf brought Young additional critical praise. “There is little to fault in the author’s masterly recreation of the claustrophobic atmosphere and all-pervasive sense of suspicion, typical in any totalitarian state,” noted an online reviewer at Crime Fiction Lover, adding: “The dialogue is full of tension, nearly always full of hidden menace and double speak, and each of the characters has learnt not to take anything at face value.” Some commentators, however, found the novel less satisfying than its predecessor. “Although the reach and power of the Stasi form a major component of the plot, the effect in this book is less chilling than in Muller’s earlier outing, or in factual accounts of those who have suffered personally from Stasi persecution,” remarked Chris Roberts at the Crime Review Website. A blogger at Cafe Thinking observed that Young’s story “skilfully avoids cliché” but thought it suffered from an excess of coincidence. The critic allowed, though, that “Young’s research is meticulous”and “Müller is an excellent creation.”
A Darker State
In A Darker State, Karin, newly promoted in 1976, investigates the death of a teenage boy whose body is found in a lake. Soon a colleague’s son vanishes too, and Karin finds evidence of conspiracy and blackmail. She again does her detective work alongside Werner, who has become a friend, and under the ever-present surveillance of the Stasi.
Several critics pronounced this a gripping tale. “Young absorbs readers in a world where anyone could betray you: your friend, your colleague, even your lover,” related Emma Hamilton at the Buried under Books Website. Despite this environment, “this isn’t a depressing book; it’s enthralling and immersive and will keep you reading until the shocking conclusion,” she continued. Another online reviewer, at Raven Crime Reads, commended Young’s “knack for pace and tension building,” and his “balance of fiction and fact, coupled with a genuinely compelling and exciting plot.” Both reviewers thought A Darker State worked as a stand-alone novel, but Hamilton saw an advantage to reading the previous books in the series. “Start with the fabulous Stasi Child, then the disturbing Stasi Wolf,” she wrote. “Only then can you fully appreciate just how much darker this state truly is.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Irish News (Belfast, Northern Ireland), August 11, 2016, David Roy, “Cold War Kid: Author David Young on His Acclaimed New Crime Thriller Stasi Child Set in 1970s East Berlin.”
Publishers Weekly, June 12, 2017, review of Stasi Child, p. 39.
ONLINE
Buried under Books, https://buriedunderbooks.co.uk/ (February 13, 2018), Emma Hamilton, review of A Darker State.
Cafe Thinking, https://cafethinking.com/ (March 21, 2017), review of Stasi Wolf.
Crime Fiction Lover, https://crimefictionlover.com/ (February 3, 2017), review of Stasi Wolf.
Crime Review, http://crimereview.co.uk/ (June 10, 2017), Chris Roberts, review of Stasi Wolf.
Criminal Element, https://www.criminalelement.com/ (August 1, 2017), review of Stasi Child.
David Young Website, http://stasichild.blogspot.com/ (April 18, 2018).
Literature Works, http://literatureworks.org.uk/ (October 20, 2015), George Francis, review of Stasi Child.
Raven Crime Reads, https://ravencrimereads.wordpress.com/ (February 9, 2018), review of A Darker State.
Readers First, https://www.readersfirst.co.uk/ (March 2, 2018), review of A Darker State.
Writing, https://www.writing.ie/ (October 5, 2015), David Young, “How Stasi Child Was Born.”
Welcome to the official website of David Young, author of the Karin Müller series of crime thrillers set in East Germany in the mid 1970s.
The series is published by Bonnier Zaffre in the UK and by publishers in ten other international territories. It begins in 1975 with Stasi Child, David's critically-acclaimed debut which was an official Top Twenty paperback bestseller in The Bookseller, won the CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger for best historical crime novel of 2016, and was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.
The second in the series, Stasi Wolf, was published in e-book and paperback in February 2017 and A Darker State will be released on February 8th 2018 in the UK. Two more novels are under contract, making five in all.
DAVID YOUNG was born near Hull and, after dropping out of a Bristol University science degree, studied Humanities at Bristol Polytechnic. Temporary jobs cleaning ferry toilets and driving a butcher’s van were followed by a career in journalism on provincial newspapers, a London news agency, and international radio and TV newsrooms. He now writes in his garden shed and in a caravan on the Isle of Wight, and in his spare time supports Hull City AFC.
Many thanks for visiting my Amazon author page and for taking an interest in my Oberleutnant Karin Müller series, which begins in the mid-1970s with Stasi Child.
The books are part police-procedural, part thriller and have a dash of historical mystery thrown in. There's a smidgen of Cold War politics in the mix too, so hopefully fans of several different genres will enjoy them.
It's early days, but initial reviews have been good and Stasi Child has already won the City University/PFD Crime Fiction Prize and been placed third from hundreds of entries round the world in the international Yeovil Literary Prize.
But the biggest thrill for any debut author is knowing that people are actually reading and enjoying their books. The German Democratic Republic is now a lost world, but I hope - through my stories - you'll get the chance to discover what it was like on the other side of the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart: the GDR's favourite term for the Berlin Wall.
Quoted in Sidelights: "By the end, I was fed up and wanted to get out,". "I turned to novels as an escape route." , "I was stuck by how you can still see the imprint of the old East Germany in the city."
Cold War kid: author David Young on his acclaimed new crime thriller Stasi Child set in 1970s East Berlin
Former journalist David Young has made a huge impact with his debut novel Stasi Child, a crime thriller set in Cold War-era East Berlin. He spoke to David Roy about the book ahead of an appearance at the Open House Festival next week.
Cold War kid: author David Young on his acclaimed new crime thriller Stasi Child set in 1970s East Berlin
Crime writer David Young will discuss his hit debut novel Stasi Child at the Open House Festival next week
DAVID ROY
11 August, 2016 01:00
STASI Child is David Young's debut novel, the first of a planned trilogy of crime thrillers featuring heroine Karin Muller, an 'oberleutnant' in the East Berlin Volkspolizei (the 'People's Police') of 1975.
Muller and Hull-born creator (not to be confused with the Enniskillen-born journalist of the same name) are already off to a flying start with their first case, in which the East Berlin cop investigates a body found at the Berlin Wall.
An unidentified teenage girl has apparently been gunned down during an illegal crossing from West Germany to the German Democratic Republic (DDR) – the opposite route of the era's regular escape attempts.
With several other irregularities at the crime scene and the investigation being closely supervised by the all-seeing, all-knowing Ministry For State Security – the 'Stasi' – Muller suspects that there is much more to the case than meets the eye.
The book provides readers with a portal into a not-so-long gone world of communist cops operating in a State riddled with corruption and all pervasive paranoia, where every apparent ally is also a potential informer and 'difficult' adolescents – like the novel's central teenage character, Irma Behrendt – are consigned to work camps.
Stasi Child has attracted rave reviews since its release in February. A 'Crime Book of the Month' in The Times, it has gone on to be longlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel Of The Year and the Crime Writer's Association Endeavour Historical Dagger Award for best 'period' crime novel.
The book should appeal to fans of the German Cold War-era TV spy series Deutschland 83 along with readers who enjoyed the non-fiction hit Stasiland, Anna Funder's grimly fascinating look at the Stasi's four decade crusade to make the DDR into a 'total surveillance state', and Tom Rob-Smith's best-selling USSR-set crime novel Child 44.
Indeed, there's a reason that the title of Young's debut novel – which began as a class assignment on the Crime Thriller MA at the City University London – might seem a little familiar.
"I don't know if I've ever admitted this, but 'Stasi Child' was actually permed from the syllables of Stasiland and Child 44," chuckles the former journalist, who spent 27 years as a news editor with BBC World Service TV.
"I stayed far too long," admits Young of his former career.
"By the end, I was fed up and wanted to get out. I turned to novels as an escape route."
When the MA students were asked to pen the opening chapter of a novel based on a theme of 'setting', the former DDR immediately sprang to Young's mind as somewhere with enormous, highly atmospheric potential.
"About eight years previously, I'd been in a little indiepop band (The Candy Twins) that managed to blag a tour of Germany," he tells me.
"We played mostly in the former East – and that's what gave me the idea of setting the novel in Berlin.
"I was actually reading Stasiland between gigs and I was stuck by how you can still see the imprint of the old East Germany in the city," recalls Young.
"You notice it especially on the old Stalinalle, or Karl-Marx-Alle as it is now, and lots of the old DDR-era apartment blocks."
Indeed, the site of the band's first gig in a now defunct club beneath Hackescher Markt S-bahn station serves as the Volkspolizei's HQ in the novel.
Interestingly, there's also Northern Ireland link to Stasi Child: Young's main tutor on the MA was Claire McGowan, Rostrevor-born author of The Fall and the Paula McGuire series of crime novels.
"Claire didn't like my original idea for a book, which was a bawdy 18th century romp," he reveals.
"She found the main character fairly revolting and encouraged me to keep going with Stasi Child instead. She was very much involved in the first draft of the novel."
Its DDR setting proved crucial to the book's subsequent success: it's main unique selling point is the fact that Karin Muller and co exist in a world which hasn't really been explored before in crime fiction, at least not in the English language.
"On a very basic level, it's better to to write something that someone else hasn't already done so that you've got a chance of getting your book sold," he tells me of his "slightly cynical" choice of subject matter.
"Unless you can sell the book, you're not going to get published."
Happily, Twenty7Books have already signed Young up for a pair of sequels, the rights to which have been optioned for TV by Euston Films (Minder, The Sweeney) along with Stasi Child itself.
In other words, we haven't heard the last of Karin Muller – or indeed the novel's titular character – just yet: readers can look forward to being back in the DDR next year for more Cold War-era cloak and dagger crime intrigue.
:: David Young talks to BBC NI's Stephen Walker about Stasi Child at the Open House Festival, Wednesday August 17, Space Theatre, Bangor, 7.30pm. Tickets £10 via Openhousebangor.com.
How ‘Stasi Child’ Was Born by David Young
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Article by writingie © 5 October 2015 .
Posted in the Magazine ( · Crime ).
I have a confession to make. I’m a bit of an obsessive. I once got so obsessed with sailing I bought all the yachting magazines as soon as they came out, without going anywhere near the water. When I actually did, I hated it (although I don’t think the experience was helped by a raging hangover).
The trouble is that in the past I’ve flitted from one obsession to another and often – therefore – become a Jack of all trades, master of none. As well as the devotion to theoretical yachting, at various times I’ve been an slavish Neil Young fan (I gave up after thirty-odd albums), a motorhome enthusiast (it got nicked when someone took it for a jolly to the 2006 World Cup), and a golf addict (my high point was being 13th reserve for the English Mid Amateur after getting my handicap down through determined wangling rather than ability).
So when novel writing first reared its head at the beginning of the noughties, I initially went at it with gusto. Online writing courses were soon followed by a full-length novel manuscript, and I sent it off to agents full of hope. Result: a pile of rejection slips. I repeated the process – rather than honing and polishing the first manuscript – and the second time fared somewhat better. One crime agent’s reader said the sample chapters reminded him of the writing of bestselling Robert Goddard. The full manuscript got ‘called in’. I was thrilled, I thought I’d made it. Then … another rejection. The agent herself felt it was at best a midlist book, and she wasn’t excited enough to take it on …
At this point a true obsessive would have tried again. But I didn’t. I just moved on to the next big thing. In my case starting an indiepop band (the highpoint of which was a couple of self-booked tours of Germany and being played by Steve Lamacq on 6 Music). But after a few years that, too, was going nowhere fast.
Thankfully the next change of direction saw me returning to that obsession of a decade before. One that most desk-bound journalists aspire to: writing a novel to try to escape office drudgery. I took it absolutely seriously this time, and after exhaustive research I signed up for City University’s first Crime Thriller MA (chosen because it’s the only one where to graduate you must write a full-length novel).
Things started to go downhill when I had my interview. The overall course director, Jonathan Myerson, had loved my writing sample (one of my earlier unpublished crime thriller novels), but was a little put out that my list of favourite books contained not one single crime title.
In fact, the only crime book on my five favourite and least favourite chart was Barbara Vine’s (aka the late Ruth Rendell’s) 2001 novel Grasshopper – and that was top of my list of ‘hates’. This was pretty much sacrilege for a would-be crime writer.
Nevertheless, Jonathan gave me a place.
The head of the crime option at City is Northern Irish crime writer Claire McGowan (ably assisted at that time by Roger Morris and Guardian crime critic Laura Wilson). Claire was reasonably positive about my writing – but hated the novel I was planning to write: a bawdy 18th century romp with a morally dubious main character.
David Young. Photo by Simon Bohrsmann
David Young. Photo by Simon Bohrsmann
Thankfully, in the first term we were encouraged to try different potential starts of novels covering things like characterisation, plot, and setting. And in trying to think of a different setting, I remembered reading Stasiland on my band’s tour of Germany. So I dreamt up the opening chapter of a novel set in 1970s East Berlin, where a female People’s Police murder squad head is called to the scene of a body at the foot of the Berlin Wall. When she gets there, she discovers the Stasi are really in charge, and her job is simply to find evidence to back up their version of events: that the girl was shot from the west while trying to escape into the east.
Claire loved this as a premise and so Stasi Child was born. After that, it was Laura Wilson who worked on the nuts and bolts with me. I was also very lucky to secure Philip Sington as my guest tutor, as I’d loved his East German-set novel, The Valley of Unknowing. Roger Morris had introduced us to Peter May’s Lewis Trilogy – and I ‘adopted’ Peter’s structure of The Lewis Man where two separate narratives flip flop and eventually collide.
I started to realise I might have created something good with Stasi Child when I was told I was down to the last eight in the international Yeovil Literary Prize. I didn’t win (coming third) but the judge, Elizabeth Buchan, said of Stasi Child: ‘Terrific detail … excellently paced … a cracking read.’
Then at the shortlisting stage for the MA course prize – sponsored by London literary agents, Peters Fraser & Dunlop – an up and coming young agent with PFD, Adam Gauntlett, rang me out of the blue and said he absolutely loved the novel and wanted to sign me up. This time I won the prize, and unlike twelve years earlier, the finished draft was never shown to anyone else. So I was spared that ubiquitous and demoralising round of rejections.
A five-figure deal with Fleuve Editions for French rights swiftly followed, as did a three-book deal with Bonnier’s new debut imprint, Twenty7 Books. TV rights have also been optioned by the revived Euston Films (of Minder and The Sweeney fame). So it’s all very exciting, but scary. Reviews have been good and there’s a buzz on Twitter. All I can do now is try to promote the novel as much as possible … obsessively, in my case, as you might imagine.
After all, I’m an obsessive, and if you’re an aspiring writer that’s no bad thing. Just stick with it, learn from the rejections, and keep going. Eventually – with a bit of luck – you might succeed in seeing your book on the bestsellers shelf. That – anyway – is what I hope is the destiny for Stasi Child. But even if it isn’t, I hope this time I won’t give up.
(c) David Young
Quoted in Sidelights: "outstanding."
Stasi Child: A Karin Muller Thriller
Publishers Weekly. 264.24 (June 12, 2017): p39+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Stasi Child: A Karin Muller Thriller
David Young. Minotaur, $25.99 (416p) ISBN 978-1-250-12175-2
Set in East Berlin in 1975, British author Young's outstanding first novel and series launch dramatizes the inherent difficulty of policing honestly in a police state. Karin Muller, of the People's Police, is roused in the middle of the night after the body of an unidentified teenage girl is found in a cemetery near the Berlin Wall, known in East Germany as the Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier/ Rampart. When Muller arrives at the scene, she's taken aback by the presence of Klaus Jager of the Ministry of State Security, or Stasi, who informs her only that she's been ordered to assist him. Muller is further discomfited by the official Stasi explanation for the death--that the girl was "apparently shot from the West--possibly by western guards--while escaping into the East." Quickly discovering evidence contesting that unlikely scenario, she finds herself in a dilemma when Jager directs her to focus on identifying the corpse rather than the killer. Fans of Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko will welcome Muller. Agent: Adam Gauntlett, Peters, Fraser & Dunlop (U.K.). (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Stasi Child: A Karin Muller Thriller." Publishers Weekly, 12 June 2017, p. 39+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495720645/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=df9b8889. Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495720645
Quoted in Sidelights: “Balanced with the general dread and paranoia of East German life are specifics that’ll make you want to put down the book to look up images on the internet (but after just one more chapter).”
Review: Stasi Child by David Young
CHRIS WOLAK
STASI CHILD by David Young
STASI CHILD by David Young
Stasi Child by David Young is the first book in the Karin Müller series, set in East Berlin in 1975 (available August 1, 2017).
This is a Cold War thriller that has nothing to do with nuclear annihilation or international espionage. The focus is on a murder investigation in East Berlin, and all the players are East Germans.
Readers familiar with Cold War novels set in Communist East Germany will feel at home in the setting and tone that Young creates. Readers new to the genre will quickly feel the bleakness of life in East Germany, from the pollution to inadequate winter clothing to the construction of monolithic Soviet block apartments.
Nothing is quite straight forward. Everyone has something to hide and/or some kind of damage that’s a weak spot that can be manipulated by those in power. Citizens have to walk a straight line to avoid suspicion. These threats are bad, but worst of all is the corrosive force of relentless propaganda and paranoia that wears people down. Everyone is a potential informer spying on everyone else, even family members.
The novel opens in February 1975. Oberleutnant Karin Müller is the highest ranking woman in the People’s Police. She’s proud of the fact that her government is striving to create a more equal and just society. Her rise through the ranks is proof positive that it's working, and now she’s been given a politically sensitive case: to find out the identity of a young woman who was brutally murdered, her body found near the Berlin Wall and made to look like she was fleeing from the West. She’s told, however, not to search for the killer, just find the identity of the victim.
While her professional life is thriving—even if she is in a bit over her head—Müller’s marriage is falling apart and may already be dead. Her husband, Gottfried, is a school teacher who was recently reprimanded and sent to work at a reform school to help him realign with communist values. Gottfried watches Western news programs, which are illegal, and frequents a church where the pastor is under surveillance.
Balanced with the general dread and paranoia of East German life are specifics that’ll make you want to put down the book to look up images on the internet (but after just one more chapter). Wartburgs, Trabis, the KaDeWe. And then there’s the humorous secondary character, the fumbling forensic scientist and Kriminaltechniker Jonas Schmidt. He takes crime scene photos with a Praktica camera and also uses a Foton, a Soviet instant camera that takes photos “just as good as from those American Polaroids.” Young doesn’t throw these items in just to drop names, the photos Schmidt takes help establish early in the investigation that something is very off about the crime scene.
The action swings between Müller’s investigation and nine months earlier in a reform school where a teenage girl is concerned about one of her friends who has started crying every night after lights out. The two storylines kept me guessing as to how they’d merge, and I didn’t see a lot of things coming in this story.
As the story unfolds, Müller’s confidence in her society’s efforts towards gender equality develops hairline fractures. At first, it’s her second in command, Werner Tilsner, fumbling around in his kitchen preparing morning coffee—something, she thinks, he probably only does on International Women's Day. At the other extreme is the shocking number of missing girls in East Berlin, the number of which dwarfs that of missing girls from the whole of West Germany.
At one point, the investigation takes Müller and Tilsner into West Berlin where, for the first time, she sees the luxuries and everyday colors of life in a thriving capitalist culture. Part of her mission requires her to shop, and she enjoys buying soft clothing and warm boots. She luxuriates in a bubble bath at the fancy hotel. Back in the East, she has a moment of guilty pleasure:
In the office, she allowed herself one reminder of the West. She piled the shopping bags on the long table, under the noticeboard, and then lifted out the large shoebox that contained the boots. She opened it, and peeled back the protective tissue paper. Then she removed one boot, and caressed the fur-lined top, as though stroking a cat. A small touch of luxury. Then she looked up at the photographs pinned to the noticeboard. The dead, nameless girl without teeth. The girl without eyes.
Müller dropped the fur-lined boot as though it was infected.
There’s more to the scene than meets the eye, and to say too much about it would lead to spoilers. But it does beg the question about why people embrace the political systems that they do. There’s something about the East German regime’s propaganda that gave Müller comfort, just as there was something about Western values that attracted her husband. And then you have a guy like Tilsner, who seems to be a poster boy for the People’s Police yet can afford a fancy watch that is way above his pay grade. So many questions!
Some are answered, and some are not, but one thing is certain: Young shows how the claustrophobic paranoia of life in East Germany leads not only to cynicism but sometimes to an exhaustion so deep that people give in, give up, and do what they’re told.
As the saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely. In Communist East Germany, that power does more than just create lives of splendor for a few, it causes irreparable physical and psychological damage to those without power, thus strengthening a system that feeds on fear and paranoia.
Quoted in Sidelights: “The plot is cleverly complicated, but easy enough to follow leaving readers so curious that the novel is so hard to put down,”
“an incredible debut.”
REVIEW: Stasi Child by David Young
Debuting his first thriller paperback novel, David Young creates a beautifully atmospheric and exciting plot, featuring a brand new leading female character role within Stasi Child.
HomeBook FeaturesREVIEW: Stasi Child by David Young
Date posted: 20th October 2015 / Book Reviews
Debuting his first thriller paperback novel, David Young creates a beautifully atmospheric and exciting plot, featuring a brand new leading female character role within Stasi Child.
Set in the winter of East Berlin, 1975, Oberleuntnant Karin Müller and her deputy, Unterleutnant Werner Tilsner receive a call to investigate the death of a young girl found by the Berlin Wall – or, the ‘Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier’ as it is so called. From the go it is unusual for Müller to be involved in an investigation of this nature so close to the border; that is until they arrive at the scene. A Stasi officer, Klaus Jäger is onsite and he is requiring personal assistance from Müller.
This ice cold winter tale chisels away at the reader’s fingers as they delve deeper into the plot, with the relationships between Müller and the other characters being immensely captivating. For instance, her attraction to Tilsner, the strain of her marriage to husband Gottfriend and of course, the Stasi officer, Jäger himself. From the first few pages, Young creates this sensational setting with a headstrong female lead that drives the plot forward at a steady pace.
The narrative itself is conveyed through strikingly sinister reminders of life in East Germany back in the 70s, this stays true to the novel throughout. With lots of twists, the number of sub-plots draws you in at every turn of the page. As the story continues, it leaves the reader asking a number of questions but most importantly, the question of who can and cannot be trusted.
With fantastic attention to detail, including the use of German language for authenticity, the novel appears educational as well as extremely pleasurable. The plot is cleverly complicated, but easy enough to follow leaving readers so curious that the novel is so hard to put down. It is such an incredible debut for the start of a leading character series and Young has definitely written a sensational beginning.
Reminding me of the inspiring Henning Mankell and his famous Kurt Wallander series, David Young has produced a remarkable plot with some remarkable characters that are no doubt, here to stay. Hopefully the next Karin Müller thriller won’t be too far behind or in any way a disappointment.
by Georgia Francis
Quoted in Sidelights: “Although the reach and power of the Stasi form a major component of the plot, the effect in this book is less chilling than in Muller’s earlier outing, or in factual accounts of those who have suffered personally from Stasi persecution,”
Publisher Zaffre Publishing
Date Published 09 February 2017
ISBN-10 1785760688
ISBN-13 978-1785760686
Format paperback
Pages 416
Price £ 7.99
Stasi Wolf
by David Young
Oberleutnant Karin Muller is drafted south to assist in the recovery of two infant twins who have been abducted, a search that eventually becomes very personal.
Review
According to state propaganda, East Germany in 1975 is supposedly largely free of crime. The abduction of twin babies in the Southern new town of Halle-Neustadt is giving rise to concern, but the Ministry of State Security, the Stasi, want the case wrapped up as quietly as possible so prefer to draft in police from elsewhere in the hope of a quick resolution before locals become aware of what is going on.
Oberleutnant Karin Muller is assigned from Berlin to take charge, together with a technical assistant and eventually Tilsner, whom she worked with in her last case (detailed in Stasi Child). Tilsner is nominally her junior, but his links to the Stasi mean Karin needs to be aware she is under observation. However, the Stasi in Ha-Neu are far more of a problem; they insist on a low profile, supposedly to avoid creating panic but seriously impeding progress with the investigation.
Despite this handicap, with a bit of invention and bending the rules prescribed for her, Muller makes progress. One of the twins is found dead and the other recovered alive. But a further kidnap makes it clear that the problem is not solved. Eventually, the discovery of an event some years ago and a very new and personal crisis come together and bring about a solution.
As with Stasi Child, Karin is at the centre of the story, but here we find out much more about her history: her unhappy childhood in a southern village, and the disappearance of a childhood friend in a politically-inspired pogrom. She makes a visit to her old home, and gets some unsettling news from her mother. She also forms a relationship with a man from Berlin, a doctor, although her feelings for the man seem curiously muted.
Although the reach and power of the Stasi form a major component of the plot, the effect in this book is less chilling than in Muller’s earlier outing, or in factual accounts of those who have suffered personally from Stasi persecution. Despite landing in an unfamiliar and architecturally brutal environment, the local police are cooperative and friendly and Tilsner becomes a true friend. While Karin faces threats and uncertainties from various sources, therefore, the sense of menace is somewhat lacking, at least up to the final pages.
In fact, although the author makes it clear that many of the incidents in the book are based loosely on real East German events and the plot is firmly rooted in place and time, the story could plausibly be transposed to the UK, say in a new town in the 1960s, without losing too much of its appeal. Life behind the iron curtain as portrayed by David Young feels less alien than suggested by some writers, despite the undoubted challenges he throws at his protagonist.
Reviewed 10 June 2017 by Chris Roberts
Quoted in Sidelights: “skilfully avoids cliché”
“Young’s research is meticulous”and “Müller is an excellent creation.”
Stasi Wolf, by David Young – book review
It’s difficult to review Stasi Wolf without spoilers, but here goes. This is the second in a series of thrillers set in 1970s East Germany from the British writer David Young. The first, Stasi Child (which I haven’t read) achieved stellar sales.
I’m fascinated by the German Democratic Republic but fiction set in the former state that is available in English tends to be a Cold War spy extravaganza or a polemic about the relationship between the GDR and its citizens. Frankly, I am hoping for something different. Whether that’s realistic in a novel with the word ‘Stasi’ in its title is at first unclear.
There are two problems I encounter. The first is in my own head. There are plenty of clues that point to a state conspiracy and betrayal. I’m quite sensitised towards this and I don’t really enjoy it. It transpires that I should have had more faith in the author who walks a very precise line: he’s promised us a police procedure with some Stasi thrown in, and that’s what he gives us. The storyline is about child snatching – just as it says on the back cover – and the themes are universal human concerns that just happen to be dramatised in the model city of Halle-Neustadt. That bit’s OK, but Young gives us a slightly different problem. In providing a plot which skilfully avoids cliché, and which includes some nods to real life crimes, he also gives us a story in which coincidences are implausible and the twist at the end takes things just the wrong side of believable.
I’m not sure whether that’s too much of a problem, and that in itself provides a warning. Young’s research is meticulous (there’s an appendix stating where he has taken liberties) and he is scrupulous in taking a neutral-ish approach. Yet although we see plenty of examples of what ‘real life’ was like for the citizens of Ha-Neu, we do so as tourists gawping at the exotic. Partly that is because the protagonist, Karin Müller, is herself unfamiliar with the quirky new city, pining for her beloved Hauptstadt. However, Müller is an excellent creation who shines as brightly as an East Berlin Ampelmann. We root for her as she navigates the barriers erected by her Stasi opponents who don’t want her to solve the case. She seems to take pride in the GDR’s progress, but she is not starry-eyed about its practices. In that, she seems to symbolise the citizen who, while denying (though not openly) the GDR’s legitimacy as a state, made a reasonable life within its borders.
And if much of the enjoyment of this novel comes from its setting ‘elsewhere’, this is no bad thing. From historical drama to Nordic Noir, almost all fiction is by definition from ‘elsewhere’ whether set in time or place, and since I don’t remember being this fussy about other works this is clearly my issue rather than the author’s. I hope there will be more in this series. Indeed, what I would like David Young to consider as a sequel is a cat-and-mouse hunt through the halls of the amazing and now sadly demolished Palace of the Republic, culminating in a showdown either in the Volkskammer or by that weird glass flower. What was that about ‘just the wrong side of believable’?
Quoted in Sideligths: “There is little to fault in the author’s masterly recreation of the claustrophobic atmosphere and all-pervasive sense of suspicion, typical in any totalitarian state,”
“The dialogue is full of tension, nearly always full of hidden menace and double speak, and each of the characters has learnt not to take anything at face value.”
STASI WOLF
February 3, 2017 Written by MarinaSofia Published in iBook, Kindle, Print, Reviews 0 Permalink
Written by David Young — David Young’s novel Stasi Child was a memorable debut and a breath of fresh air in crime fiction. It focused on East Germany in the 1970s, a country and period that are less known to readers in Western Europe. By fortuitous coincidence, it arrived at the same time as the successful Deutschland 83 TV series, but can the GDR setting sustain the interest of readers for a whole series? Judging by this second book, we would say yes.
At the end of Stasi Child, we left Oberleutnant Karin Müller widowed and disgraced rather than triumphant after solving a tricky case with political repercussions. Stasi Wolf opens a few months later, and Karin’s career seems permanently stalled, all because she refused to join the Stasi. But then she is given another chance. In the brand-new purpose-built town of Halle-Neustadt, pride of the German Democratic Republic, a pair of newborn twins have gone missing. The local authorities seem keen to draft in police from Berlin to handle the case, with considerable supervision from the secret police. Karin is understandably reluctant to take it on and run the risk of clashing with the Stasi again. She doesn’t have much choice, however, so she heads south to the half-finished city with no street names, only sector numbers.
Why are the police so desperate to keep the whole investigation under wraps, keeping the public blissfully ignorant of any danger? Is it merely to avoid tarnishing the reputation of the model communist city and keep the population from panicking, as they claim, or is there something more at stake? And how is Karin supposed to solve a crime when her team are not allowed to ask any questions? Although she has managed to get her former partner Werner Tilsner to join the team in Halle-Neustadt and the two of them engage in their own brand of creative lateral thinking, the investigation soon gets bogged down in secrecy and propaganda.
Alongside the 1975 timeline, we also have a second timeline starting in 1965, told from the perspective of a rather child-like woman called Franzi. As she describes her marriage, her husband’s mysterious but very important job, and their attempts to have children, it will become rather obvious to you why these passages have a bearing to the case Karin is investigating, although the full details only become apparent in the final pages. There is also quite a bit of Karin’s own back story in this book, since Halle is not far from her parents’ home in the Thuringian forest, and she begins to find happiness with a new partner. The multiple shifts in timeline and point of view can become slightly confusing, and there are perhaps a few too many implausible connections between them. You might also wonder about the feats of superhuman strength one of the protagonists carries out towards the end.
There is little to fault in the author’s masterly recreation of the claustrophobic atmosphere and all-pervasive sense of suspicion, typical in any totalitarian state. The tone and feel of everyday life in the GDR is pitch-perfect, from the Wartburgs and S-Bahns to the Vita Colas and lengthy party meetings in the workplace. The author has been very diligent about doing his research and many of the least believable plot details are based on true facts, as you will discover if you read the afterword. The dialogue is full of tension, nearly always full of hidden menace and double speak, and each of the characters has learnt not to take anything at face value.
Although I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as Stasi Child, book two is intriguing and the series remains unlike any other that is currently out there. I can’t wait to see what the Oberleutnant will be up to next.
For books in a similar vein, try the outstanding Arkady Renko series by Martin Cruz Smith. Stasi Wolf is released 9 February.
Zaffre
Print/Kindle/iBook
£3.99
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
Quoted in Sidelights: “Young absorbs readers in a world where anyone could betray you: your friend, your colleague, even your lover,”
“this isn’t a depressing book; it’s enthralling and immersive and will keep you reading until the shocking conclusion,”
“Start with the fabulous ‘Stasi Child‘, then the disturbing ‘Stasi Wolf,‘” she wrote. “Only then can you fully appreciate just how much darker this state truly is.”
REVIEW: ‘A Darker State’ by David Young
Share: • February 13, 2018 in Blog Tours, Book Reviews, Crime, Fiction, Historical fiction
DDR, East Germany, Stasi
A Darker State
How do you investigate a crime the Stasi don’t want you to solve?
This is a problem Oberleutnant Karin Muller is familiar with. David Young’s first thrilling crime novel, ‘Stasi Child‘, saw Karin investigate the mysterious death of a teenage girl who appeared to be escaping from West to East Berlin, and ‘Stasi Wolf‘, our heroine’s second outing, saw her attempting to investigate the abduction of baby twins in the new, model socialist village of Halle-Neustadt. In both these chilling tales, the People’s Police officer finds herself manipulated and threatened by the Stasi, her romantic and professional life subject to the machinations of her socialist bosses.
Muller’s third outing, ‘A Darker State’, follows a similar trajectory but – as the title promises – it is significantly darker. Grab a blanket and a hot cup of tea because you’re about to feel chilled to the bone.
What’s it about?
The body of a teenage boy is found in a lake. The obvious questions include who is he, who killed him and why, but this is the DDR in 1976 and any answers the investigating detectives uncover will depend on what the Ministry for State Security – the omnipresent and seemingly omnipotent Stasi – are willing for them to learn…
Just before being assigned this case, Karin Muller finds herself abruptly promoted two steps up the police hierarchy in order to better defend the People’s Police’s case jurisdiction. Or, possibly, according to her old Stasi ‘pal’, Jager, in order to better allow the Stasi to go about its Machiavellian business, unhampered by someone more experienced.
Just as Karin catches glimpses of a deeper conspiracy at work, the son of one of her team goes missing. Finding the truth is now essential, but is it possible?
What’s it like?
Chilling. Gripping. Fascinating.
From the disturbing prologue, featuring an old man who knows how to stay safe, to the dark coda in the heart of a young family, Young absorbs readers in a world where anyone could betray you: your friend, your colleague, even your lover.
It’s just as well then that Karin is once again partnered with Werner Tilsner, one step below her on the promotion ladder and at least one hand more in league with the devil. Some light-hearted sparring between the police colleagues is a welcome counterpoint to this bleak investigation.
As always, Young’s beautifully embedded research enables him to craft a fascinating glimpse into what was a rather secretive society. Karin Muller is the perfect conduit for our gaze, complicit as she is in maintaining a regime history has encouraged us to think badly of. Despite frequently coming into conflict with the Stasi in the course of pursuing her investigations, she is a true socialist at heart (though as Young pointed out recently, this is perhaps not surprising as Karin doubtless experiences a more pleasant life within the DDR than many of her less fortunate comrades). I wonder how much darker this state will have to get before newly promoted Major Karin Muller begins to have more serious reservations.
Final thoughts
Young has created a world in which youth is particularly vulnerable; as in ‘Stasi Child’ the deepest chill lies not in the dark politicking of the corrupt adults, but in the behaviour of the most vulnerable youths. This, I feel, is always where Young’s books take your breath away and force your heart to skip a beat. In a world so corrupt, where is there space for hope? And yet, this isn’t a depressing book; it’s enthralling and immersive and will keep you reading until the shocking conclusion, at which point you will want to return to book one and start all over again…
You could absolutely read this as a standalone, but my advice is: don’t. Start with the fabulous ‘Stasi Child‘, then the disturbing ‘Stasi Wolf‘. Only then can you fully appreciate just how much darker this state truly is.
‘A Darker State’,
David Young,
2018, Bonnier Zaffre, paperback
Quoted in Sidellights: “knack for pace and tension building,” and his “balance of fiction and fact, coupled with a genuinely compelling and exciting plot.”
Blog Tour- David Young- A Darker State
The body of a teenage boy is found weighted down in a lake. Karin Müller, newly appointed Major of the People’s Police, is called to investigate. But her power will only stretch so far, when every move she makes is under the watchful eye of the Stasi.
Then, when the son of Müller’s team member goes missing, it quickly becomes clear that there is a terrifying conspiracy at the heart of this case, one that could fast lead Müller and her young family into real danger.
Can she navigate this complex political web and find the missing boy, before it’s too late?
Eyes down and here we go everybody for the next instalment of David Young’s gripping series set in 1970s East Germany, placing us at the heart of Cold War fear and suspicion. Following on from Stasi Child and Stasi Wolf the book opens with a new home, a seemingly settled family life, and an unexpected promotion for Oberletnant Karin Müller, and yet a creeping feeling of unease as to just what the payback for these rewards will be…
Although I experienced a little dip in my perception of Müller in the previous book, she is back on fine form in this one, despite the pressure she comes under in both her personal and professional life. There’s a good balance between the doubt and self questioning she experiences as a new mother, and in her supposedly solid relationship with her partner Emil, set against her day to day trials and tribulations in a particularly knotty investigation, under the unwavering eye of the sinister Stasi. It is the latter element in her life that really brings her character to life, as she has to out-think and pre-empt the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, sabotage of her investigation, at times putting her in extreme physical danger, but never once denting her sense of morality and focus to get the job done. Reunited with her right hand man, and sometime lover, Werner Tilsner, Young is given the opportunity to not only show the solidity of their professional partnership, but to also insert some moments of lighter, teasing humour into the proceedings. Likewise, Müller’s interactions with slippery Stasi man Jager, whose presence adds another frisson to the investigation, also allows her to show us her steely determination, and her ability to use and manipulate him as much as he does her. Although he does have one particular revelation to foist on her at the close of the book that neither she, nor us, would entirely expect…
As we have come to expect from the two preceding books, Young does not stint on the historical, political and social detail attendant to this period of German history. Not only do we become fully conversant with the ramifications for the individual living in the grip of Communist rule, but also the differences in existence between two halves of the same nation. Interestingly, there are small freedoms that those in the supposedly more totalitarian east experience, and Young also contrasts the feelings of acceptance and pride that some hold, as a juxtaposition to those who feel trapped and surveilled at every turn. The book is absolutely brimming with research, applied in such a way as to not outweigh the natural flow of the plot, but enough to give the reader an inherent feeling of time and place. With a surprising, and unsettling, premise for the murders that occur, Young inveigles us in an underground world of sexual intolerance, and blackmail that is truly disturbing, and one cannot help but feel supremely sorry for the victims of these heinous crimes. I enjoyed the split narrative and timelines, and as the story segued between the two, Young once again showed his knack for pace and tension building. I remember reading somewhere that good authors always write the kind of books that they themselves would like to read , and with Young’s balance of fiction and fact, coupled with a genuinely compelling and exciting plot, I think in this case he has written as a reader and not just a churn-‘ em-out writer that the crime genre is sadly littered with.
Although there is a danger in coming into a series part way through. I think A Darker State actually works extremely well as a stand alone for those late to the party. With a nifty tie up with a certain event in the first book, there is ample opportunity to go back to the beginning before the next book appears. Definitely a series that I have enjoyed, and with an overview of all three books, this has been my favourite to date. Highly recommended and bring on book 4!
(With thanks to Bonnier Zaffre for the ARC)
Wow.. David Young does it again
caseylou Avatar
03/02/2018 – 16:28
By caseylou
Set in East a Berlin 1970’s at a time where the wall remained and politics and police had so much control and conflict. It’s scary to think that people lived with the fear on a daily basis and sometimes in hiding.
Writing as a 1st person on one chapter and 3rd on another it gives you different perspective of each character, found this insightful and not at all confusing. Descriptive and intriguing on each page.
A few surprises during the book, cleverly written so although 3rd book in the series it doesn’t mean you must have read the first 2. It kept me hooked and wanting to get back to the book as soon as I could to make sure Karin was safe.
Although German words are used they are explained at the back but you can work out what they mean when reading.
A page turner with different emotions and changes along the way.
Can’t wait for the next book, love Karin Muller.