Wissahickon Valley Public Library

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2017

Format:	Book
Author:	Young, David, 1958- author.
Title:	Stasi child / David Young.
Edition:	First U.S. edition.
Publisher, Date:	New York : Minotaur Books, a Thomas Dunne book, 2017. ©2015
Description:	408 pages ; 22 cm
Summary:	Investigating the death of a teen girl found at the foot of the Berlin Wall in 1975, Oberleutnant Karin Müller is perplexed to learn that the girl had been trying to escape from West Berlin, in a case that compels Müller to risk her job and safety.
Notes:	First published in London by Twenty7 Books in 2016. Twenty7 Books place of publication and publication date verified by the British Library catalog (http://explore.bl.uk).
Subjects:	Policewomen -- Germany (East) -- Fiction. Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction. Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989 -- Fiction. Intelligence service -- Germany (East) -- Corrupt practices -- Fiction.
Genre:	Thrillers (Fiction)
LCCN:	2017013343
ISBN:	9781250121752 * 9781250121769
Current Holds:	0
Local Availability:	0 (of 0)
System Availability:	7 (of 8)

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Where Is It?

Fiction/Biography Profile

Characters
	Karin Muller (Female), Oberleutnant; investigates the body of a girl;
Genre
	Fiction
	Mystery
	Historical
Topics
	Search for truth
	Murder investigations
	Crime
Time Period
	1975 -- 20th century

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Trade Reviews

Publishers Weekly Review

Set in East Berlin in 1975, British author Young's outstanding first novel and series launch dramatizes the inherent difficulty of policing honestly in a police state. Karin Müller, of the People's Police, is roused in the middle of the night after the body of an unidentified teenage girl is found in a cemetery near the Berlin Wall, known in East Germany as the Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier/Rampart. When Müller arrives at the scene, she's taken aback by the presence of Klaus Jäger of the Ministry of State Security, or Stasi, who informs her only that she's been ordered to assist him. Müller is further discomfited by the official Stasi explanation for the death-that the girl was "apparently shot from the West-possibly by western guards-while escaping into the East." Quickly discovering evidence contesting that unlikely scenario, she finds herself in a dilemma when Jäger directs her to focus on identifying the corpse rather than the killer. Fans of Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko will welcome Müller. Agent: Adam Gauntlett, Peters, Fraser & Dunlop (U.K.). (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Not yet 30, Karin Müller is the only female heading a Kriminalpolizei murder-investigation squad in communist East Germany. It's 1975, and her marriage to Gottfied, a math teacher, is troubled, to some extent, because she is attracted to Tilsner, her handsome, self-regarding deputy. They're summoned to the Berlin Wall to investigate the murder of a teenage girl. Jager, the Stasi agent who will oversee the investigation, warns Müller that the case may be unusual. Müller and Tilsner soon see that the site has been staged to suggest that the girl, inexplicably, was attempting to escape from West Berlin to East. The autopsy supports their suspicions, and everything hints at the involvement of government officials facts that mean grave risk to Müller and her team. First-novelist Young offers conflicted, complex characters and a vividly rendered sense of a place and era shrouded in mystery: the smell of lignite fires used to heat East Berlin apartments; restricted zones that don't appear on maps; and the jugendwerkhof reform schools where both students and teachers might be sent if the government questions their conformity or political ardor. Stasi Child is a winning debut novel and, one hopes, the beginning of a series.--Thomas Gaughan Copyright 2019 Booklist

Summary

David Young's chillingly intricate Stasi Child was A London Times " Crime Book of the Month" and a Telegraph Pick of the Week.

1975: When Oberleutnant Karin Muller is called to investigate a teenage girl's body at the foot of the Berlin Wall, she imagines she's seen it all before. But she soon realizes that this is a death like no other before it - the girl was evidently trying to escape from West Berlin.

As a member of the People's Police, Muller's power in East Germany only stretches so far. The Ministry for State Security, the Stasi, assures her the case is closed, all they need to know is the girl's name. Yet they strongly discourage her from asking questions. The evidence doesn't add up, and it soon becomes clear the crime scene has been staged. But this regime does not tolerate curious minds, and it takes Müller too long to realize that the trail she's been following may lead her dangerously close to home ...

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