Zoo Station

Additional Zoo Station Information

“Zoo Station is a beautifully crafted and compelling thriller with a heart-stopping ending as John Russell learns the personal faces of good and evil. An unforgettable read.”—Charles Todd, author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge series

Praise for previous books by David Downing:

“The author combines his erudition with an excellent political imagination. He writes well, clearly and has a nice wit.”—The Sunday Times (London)

“An atmospheric thriller . . . furious pacing.”—Booklist

“An elegant rapid-fire spy story.”—The Virginian-Pilot

“Compulsive reading.”—The Sunday Telegraph (London)

By 1939, Anglo-American journalist John Russell has spent over a decade in Berlin, where his son lives with his mother. He writes human-interest pieces for British and American papers, avoiding the investigative journalism that could get him deported. But as World War II approaches, he faces having to leave his son as well as his girlfriend of several years, a beautiful German starlet.

When an acquaintance from his old communist days approaches him to do some work for the Soviets, Russell is reluctant, but he is unable to resist the offer. He becomes involved in other dangerous activities, helping a Jewish family and a determined young American reporter. When the British and the Nazis notice his involvement with the Soviets, Russell is dragged into the murky world of warring intelligence services.

David Downing grew up in suburban London and is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction for adults and children, including The Moscow Option, Russian Revolution 1985, and The Red Eagles. He lives with his wife, an American acupuncturist, in Guildford, England.

What Customers Say About Zoo Station:

The bottom line is that if you like Furst, you'll like Downing. Many other reviewers have provided a good synopsis of the book so I'll skip that. It's the kind of book you can sit and read for several hours at a time without ever getting tired of it. Downing is an excellent writer who knows how to use words and language to maintain the reader's interest and convey the story. Hey, you can't go wrong for [.]. Others have called the author an Alan Furst wannabe.

If you like history and historical novels, I think you will enjoy this book. To put it simply, this was a very enjoyable read. I have already added his next two books to my wish list.What I enjoyed most about this book is that it gave me a good sense of what it was like to live in Germany in the period immediately preceeding WWII. I respectfully disagree. Although Downing writes in the Furst style, and many comparisons can be made, he has developed his own voice. If you are sick of reading poorly-written cheap detective novels and are looking for something different, give this one a try.

bucks.

Any copy editor should have caught that. Also, as a German speaker I found some curious misspellings of German words.

It got the job done, but didn't stand out for me. As a big fan of Le Carre, Greene, Alan Furst, and others in the genre, I looked forward to reading this one.

He has good reasons for this, and when he finally does it's almost too late, of course, but the many sub plots and competing themes threatened to be too much at times. It had more plot than the average Furst book, which sometimes takes a while to get going, and the period details and character motivations and descriptions were well thought out.

That said, the main character seemed to take hold of his situation less than I wanted him to. German nouns in lower case.

All in all, it had just enough compelling story and characters to make me try another in the series.

One reviewer here described this as a "quiet thriller" and that is quite apt. Very well written thriller that does a good job of creating the atmosphere and enviornment of pre-war Nazi Germany. Downing's style is similar to that of Alan Furst and fans of those novels should be pleased with this. There is great insight, thoughtfulness, and tension in this novel and it succeeds in bringing its characters to life. I look forward to reading more of Downing's work and recommend this book to anyone interested in pre-WWII Nazi Germany and Europe.

If the sense of anxiety and decay doesn't get under your fingernails, then you are robotic.Second, the characters are meaningful and interestingly complex. Mr. As someone who has studied Berlin between 1933-45, I appreciated the manner in which he has taken the ideologies that we think we know and translated them in to a narrative of everyday shortage, minor terrors and moral lapses. There are though beatings, there is espionage, there is even a fair amount of sex. Russell is a journalist, a father and somewhat of a marginal man with multiple nationalities. A couple of things to engage with other reviews.

a spy by profession [Alan Furst] or 2. Downing is to be congratulated on creating a seamless world in which his characters do what they can to get through the day while the universe seems to be going progressively out of kilter. It is a pleasant change to encounter a main lead who is not 1. First, if you think that 'nothing happens' after finishing this, then you have been watching the Bourne Trilogy too much. There are no explosions and of course no fancy digital technologies. a hard bitten cop [Phillip Kerr].

As such, I'd say he is an original character and I'm looking forward to seeing where his efforts to stay alive take him.

The main character, John Russell, is drawn in to a web of espionage involving the Germans, British, and Russians. This is a spy story more than a war story, so it's not as knock-out exciting as some Nazi novels. Fortunately, it is more grounded in reality, which for me is a strong point. Of course, he must save himself from his situation. This is a solid story, with a satisfying ending that suggests more good work may be coming from this author.Steve Wiggins, author of "Streets of Warsaw."Streets of Warsaw: A Novel of the Polish Resistance in World War II