David Downing's Espionage Series Comes to an End with MASARYK STATION, June 2013

With the publication of Masaryk Station (Soho Crime, June, 2013) David Downing will have brought to completion his remarkable John Russell series of novels, which have been praised as much for their thrilling plots as for their powerful depiction of individual hardships of the 20th century.

In Zoo Station David Downing introduced us to John Russell, a politically disillusionEd English journalist living at the heart of the Hitler's Reich. It is the eve of World War II and Russell's status as a man without country has marked him as a person of interest. The Russians see an opportunity in Russell, a former card-carrying communist, and are the first to wind him up into their intelligence network. In time Russell is a near universal pawn, blackmailed into spying for nearly every side of the upcoming conflict.

Since then readers have followed John Russell across the cobbled alleys, broad boulevards and crowded train platforms of a Europe set aflame by the clash of political ideologies. The crisis the world is facing is mirrored by the one smoldering in Russell, who must console his loss of political faith with his quest to emerge from WWII and the gathering storm of the Cold War with his humanity intact.

Wry of wit and keenly observant, John Russell is the perfect tour guide for the 20thcentury's most turbulent time. There is no hyperbole to be found in the comparisons made to the work of John Le Carré, Philip Kerr, and Alan Furst.

With Masaryk Station comes the culmination of John Russell's story, replete with answers to the complex personal questions he has pondered since becoming one of Europe's most sought-after spies.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Downing grew up in suburban London. He is the author of five previous books in the John Russell series, Zoo Station, Silesian Station, Stettin Station, Potsdam Station, and Lehrter Station. He lives with his wife, an American acupuncturist, in Guildford, England.

David Downing | 9781616952235 | HC | 6/18/2013 | $26.95 US/CAN | Soho Crime

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