It's the summer of 1961, and the inscrutable Khrushchev is developing plans for something that could change the fate of the Cold War. As he and Kennedy gamble with the fate of millions of lives, Cockney East-Ender-turned-spy Joe Wilderness is thrust into the conflict. Enlisted by MI6 to set up office in Berlin, Wilderness returns to the city where he spent his postwar years, where a former paramour is under threat, and where the dividing line between the West and the Soviets will soon be crossed.
As the Russians start building the wall, two agents find themselves trapped on opposing sides: an unfortunate Englishman in the Lubyanka in Moscow, and a KGB operative in London's Wormwood Scrubs. Now, Wilderness has a new mission: Swap the prisoners on Berlin's bridge of spies. But, as a former black marketer, Wilderness is also working a personal angle-just to make it interesting, just to make it profitable, just to make it a little more dangerous. What can possibly go wrong?
"[Then We Take Berlin and The Unfortunate Englishman] are meticulously researched, tautly plotted, historical thrillers in the mold of World War II and Cold War fiction by novelists like Alan Furst, Phillip Kerr, Eric Ambler, David Downing and Joseph Kanon."
Wall Street Journal
"[A] superlative Cold War espionage story... Lawton's gift for memorable atmosphere and characters, intelligent plotting and wry prose put him solidly at the top of anyone's A-list of contemporary spy novelists."
Adam Woog, Seattle Times
"A stylish spy thriller... as essential as the Troy books... Both series benefit from the excellence of Lawton's writing... All these adventures arrive gift-wrapped in writing variously rich, inventive, surprising, informed, bawdy, cynical, heartbreaking and hilarious. However much you know about postwar Berlin, Lawton will take you deeper into its people, conflicts and courage... Spy fiction at i
