Zoo Station by David Downing

Zoo Station by David Downing, 293 pages.

This is the first in the John Russell series, and it was very good. An English reporter living in Berlin right before the start of the Second World War, Russell is a bit down on his luck. His girlfriend is great, and his twelve-year-old son is great, and even his ex-wife isn't all that bad, but trying to sell stories about Hitler and the Nazis without losing his integrity or getting kicked out of the country, or worse, is getting him down. When he is approached by a man he knew back in the twenties, before he grew disillusioned with the idea of a glorious socialist paradise, he has to decide what he is willing to say in print for money. When a fellow reporter commits "suicide," Russell starts questioning his own ideals and ethics. And when a Jewish family that he knows and is quite fond of is torn apart, he has to wonder what he would risk to save another.
A well-paced thriller with great characters and a good sense of the time and place. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

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