Then We Take Berlin

"e;A stylish spy thriller"e; of postwar Berlin-the first in a thrilling new series from the acclaimed author of the Inspector Troy Novels (TheNew York Times Book Review). John Wilfrid Holderness aka Joe Wilderness was a young Cockney cardsharp surviving the London Blitz before he started crisscrossing war-torn Europe as an MI6 agent. With the war over, he's become a "e;free-agent gumshoe"e; weathering Cold War fears and hard-luck times. But now he's being drawn back into the secret ops business when an ex-CIA agent asks him to spearhead one last venture: smuggle a vulnerable woman out of East Berlin. Arriving in Germany, Wilderness soon discovers he's being played as a pawn in a deadly game of atomic proportions. To survive, he must follow a serpentine trail through his own past, into the confidence of an unexpected lover, and go dangerously deep into a black market scam the likes of which Berlin has never seen. The author of the acclaimed Inspector Troy Novels, "e;Lawton's gift for atmosphere, memorable characters and intelligent plotting has been compared to John le Carre. . . . Never mind the comparisons Lawton can stand up on his own, and Then We Take Berlin is a gem"e; (The Seattle Times). "e;[The Joe Wilderness novels] are meticulously researched, tautly plotted, historical thrillers in the mold of . . . Alan Furst, Phillip Kerr, Eric Ambler, David Downing and Joseph Kanon."e; The Wall Street Journal "e;[It] will thrill readers with an interest in WWII and the early Cold War era."e; Publishers Weekly, starred review "e;A wonderfully complex and nuanced thriller."e; Kirkus Reviews