John Russell

In July 1939 John Russell returns to Berlin as the newly appointed Central European correspondent of an American newspaper. With his communist past, German son and English-American parentage he's the perfect catch for any of Europe's warring espionage services - and none will take no for an answer. Book 2 of series.

November 1941. John Russell, one of a handful of much-censored journalists, finds himself pushed into serving as a point of contact between the anti-Nazi Abwehr and American intelligence. But his real work revolves around one crucial question - what fate awaits those Berliner Jews who are now being shipped to the East? Book 3 of series.

April, 1945. The Third Reich is on the verge of extinction, and its enemies are already plotting against each other. For journalist John Russell, this has personal importance: his son and girlfriend are trapped in Berlin and only the Soviets can get him in there. But the price of their help will threaten both his and the world's postwar future. Book 4 of series.

November 1945. John Russell is informed by his old accomplice, Soviet agent Yevgeny Shchepkin, that his masters in Moscow have decided it's time to pay them back for securing his safe exit from Russia. Russell must return to Berlin to become a double agent on Stalin's payroll. Together, he and Shchepkin - who has finally lost his faith in the Soviet utopia - hatch a plan to gain their freedom. Book 5 of the series.

Europe, 1948. The continent is once again divided: into the Soviet-controlled East, and the US-dominated West. John Russell and his old comrade-in-espionage Shchepkin need to find a way out of the dangerous, morally murky world they have both inhabited for far too long. But if they want to escape with their lives, they must uncover a secret so damaging that they can buy safety with their silence... Book 6 of series.

Berlin, February 1933. John Russell watches the Reichstag burn, but it's no scoop, even for a crime reporter. Four weeks after Hitler's accession, brownshirt mobs stalk the streets and the press prints what the Party tells it. Russell, a former communist with a British passport should be packing his bags, but while family ties bind him, his assignments draw him closer to the savage heart of the new regime.  Book 8 of series.

1953. Stalin is dead and John Russell's days as a double agent for the USSR and the USA are behind him. Now the British journalist lives a quiet life in Los Angeles with his actress wife, Effi, and their daughter, while around them the McCarthy-era hearings are closing in on Hollywood.

But someone is following Russell. Is it because of his research into American firms that collaborated with Nazi Germany? Or his earlier espionage work? Or something else? The answer takes John and Effi back to Berlin, now a city divided, where the fight for Stalin's succession is on.