Winter Work

Product Information

When her first rendezvous goes dangerously awry, she realizes the mission is far more delicate than she has been led to believe. Germany was split into two countries, with the western half becoming the democratic Federal Republic of Germany (FDR or West Germany) and the eastern section the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany). November, 1989: I remember taking a break from my homework, walking downstairs and seeing a bunch of people happily smashing a wall with hammers, dancing and crying as it crumbled.

Winter Work | Author Dan Fesperman Winter Work | Author Dan Fesperman

Meanwhile, CIA agent Claire Saylor, sent to Berlin to assist an Agency mop-up action against their collapsing East German adversaries, has just received an upgrade to her assignment. This evocative murder mystery vividly captures what happened on the Eastern side of the wall on a political level—including how the cache of secrets ultimately found its way to the CIA—and a personal one, from the perspective of an unusual protagonist, a sympathetic East German spy with a complicated and messy home life. On a chilly early morning walk on the wooded outskirts of Berlin, Emil Grimm finds the body of his neighbor, a fellow Stasi officer named Lothar, with a gunshot wound to the temple and a pistol in his right hand. 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. On a morning walk, Emil Grimm finds authorities surrounding the body of Lothar, his friend and partner in the plan.Until the thrilling climax, what’s at stake—what the pitched strategic battles are about—is treated almost as an afterthought. Emil observed the confrontation from a distance and decided on an approach to Claire that would trigger his plan.

Winter Work by Dan Fesperman: 9780593466957 - Penguin Random House Winter Work by Dan Fesperman: 9780593466957 - Penguin Random

My quibble with the story is the unlikely situation he contrived for one of the main characters--a former high ranking member of the East German Stasi--which smacked of an attempt to make him more sympathetic and perhaps appeal more to women readers. Fifty-seven-year-old Emil Grimm is “a professional keeper of secrets” with decades as an officer of the HVA, the foreign intelligence service of the Stasi. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover the fact that the writing style is abysmal at best, with under-developed characters who are as interesting as watching paint dry, and a plot that unfolds sooooooooooooooo slooooooooooooooooooooow, you become numb.Fesperman is a master at incorporating an actual CIA operation with former adversaries, sympathetic spies (especially Emil and Baucom) , actual players, and keen pacing.