Winter Work

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A] well-paced thriller...Fesperman accurately depicts the corrosive effect of life under a surveillance society...Most Cold War spy novels focus on the Manichaean ideological struggle between East and West; this one successfully explores a grayer era, when neither side in the conflict understood quite what was happening and the old rules of the game evaporated in a matter of weeks. In fact, calling this a spy novel is just wrong. All the "spies" here are incompetent, drink too much and talk way-too-much (boring, endless, repetitive dialogues). The action is propulsive, and Emil’s survival is always in doubt. “He had run agents and operatives from afar . . . Yet Emil himself had never once made a brush pass, chalked a mark onto a tree, cleared a dead drop, or called for a crash meeting.” And that puts him at a great disadvantage when the KGB arrives on the scene in league with the East German secret police. This is spy fiction at its very best. No one I’m aware of has done a better job of portraying intrigue in East Germany. Emil Grimm, out for a morning walk, exulted in all of it. Being a German of a certain age, he loved getting into the woods, and as a professional keeper of secrets he was impressed by any display of full disclosure. Dan Fesperman is one of my favorite thriller writers, and Winter Work is a brilliant addition to his magnificent oeuvre. Intelligently written and plotted, based on fact as gripping as any fiction and only improved by Fesperman's deft writing, Winter Work left me spellbound and hungry for another pass at his older books to relive these intense adventures.

Winter Work by Dan Fesperman: Summary and reviews - BookBrowse Winter Work by Dan Fesperman: Summary and reviews - BookBrowse

On a walk through the hilly countryside, he comes upon a team of the Stasi’s secret police examining a corpse by the side of the nearby lake. The body is that of Emil’s neighbor and friend, Lothar Fischer. Suddenly, a lieutenant in the Volkspolizei—”cops, not secret police”—arrives on the scene and, to Emil’s astonishment, persuades the Stasi men to leave. Clearly, the balance of power in East Germany has shifted. And that offers Emil hope as he sets out to learn who murdered his friend. Of course, with Fischer dead, Grimm’s life is threatened by the Russians, who are also negotiating with the Americans, although the information they want to sell is not valid. Things get pretty tense as Saylor works with Grimm to get the information to the CIA before they decide to do business with the Russians.A] superb spy thriller...The action builds to a deeply satisfying denouement. Cold War-era spy fiction doesn't get much better than this. I love spy novels, especially historic ones, but Dan Fesperman has missed hit mark so completely, I do wonder if he actually did any kind of research besides a very superficial one, and namedropping some historical figures in an pathetic attempt to give the novel some "atmosphere". Claire is new to Berlin (just transferred from Paris) and is on her own, yet expected to perform miracles. Despite the odds, she rises to the challenge. Three months into the op, she has proven her moxy—but Wall undermines her again by bringing in a new officer (male, naturellement) from HQ to take over. Claire has a secret weapon, however: an ex-CIA officer named Baucom who has lived in Berlin for decades (forced to retire early because of budget cuts—the Cold War being over—ha). Despite the bureaucracy, field operative Claire and her mentor pull off a miracle: the recovery of thousands of Stasi names, all during that brief, chaotic window of opportunity following the collapse of communism in 1989. This haul—which is historical fact—is still considered the biggest intelligence coup in CIA history. So fluent, so clever. Fesperman brilliantly recreates the atmosphere of post-Communist Europe. Winter Work confirms that he belongs alongside Joseph Kanon and David Ignatius in the front rank of American spy novelists.”

Winter Work by Dan Fesperman | Goodreads Winter Work by Dan Fesperman | Goodreads

If there's any period that must have been as flush with spy action as the WW2 era, it must be the fall of the Belin Wall. Dan Fesperman dives into this time head first, delivering a smart thriller that juggles Stasi spies trying to plot their next steps, a population elated to tear it all apart, Russians trying to salvage and Americans looking to benefit from the chaos.This is a John le Carré vibe, more in the vein of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, in that there’s a ton of exposition and interaction in the first 60% or so. Only once in that early span is there real movement, an act requiring a getaway. Mostly it’s a description of roles, of meetings held, of life circumstances and situations. Think a bit like a flowchart being explained. Perhaps not as bad as I’ve described it, since understanding how spy networks operate is a big part of this. But I concede it’s a bit slow. On the other side is Claire, a thirtysomething American CIA operative assigned from the Paris office. She has, almost predictably, a harsh female boss who is not about to take the blame if anything goes wrong. Her job is to meet with a Stasi officer (someone other than Grimm) who has promised to deliver names of former agents in return for his safety.