The prequel to David Downing’s bestselling Station series introduces John Russell, an Englishman with a political past who must keep his head down as the Nazis solidify their power.February 27, 1933. In this stunning prequel to the John Russell espionage novels, the Reichstag parliament building in Berlin is set ablaze. It’s just a month after Hitler’s inauguration as Chancellor of Germany, and the Nazis use the torching to justify a campaign of terror against their political opponents. John Russell’s recent separation from his wife threatens his right to reside in Germany and any meaningful relationship with his six-year-old son, Paul. He has just secured work as a crime reporter for a Berlin newspaper, and the crimes which he has to report—the gruesome murder of a rent boy, the hit-and-run death of a professional genealogist, the suspicious disappearance of a Nazi-supporting celebrity fortune-teller—are increasingly entangled in the wider nightmare engulfing Germany.
Each new investigation carries the risk of Russell’s falling foul of the authorities, at a time when the rule of law has completely vanished, and the Nazis are running scores of pop-up detention centers, complete with torture chambers, in every corner of Berlin.
The prequel to David Downing's bestselling Station series introduces John Russell, an Englishman with a political past who must keep his head down as the Nazis solidify their power
Berlin, 27 February 1933. A month after Hitler's inauguration as Chancellor of Germany, the Reichstag parliament building is set ablaze. The Nazis use the torching to justify a campaign of terror against their political opponents.
John Russell's recent separation from his wife threatens his right to reside in Germany and any meaningful relationship with his six-year-old son Paul. He has just secured work as a crime reporter for a Berlin newspaper, and the crimes which he has to report-the gruesome murder of a rent boy, the hit-and-run death of a professional genealogist, the suspicious disappearance of a Nazi-supporting celebrity fortune-teller-are increasingly entangled in the wider nightmare engulfing Germany.
Each new investigation carries the risk of Russell's falling foul of the authorities, at a time when the rule of law has completely vanished, and the Nazis are running scores of pop-up detention centers, complete with torture chambers, in every corner of Berlin.
Praise for Wedding Station
“Tensely satisfying . . . Downing excels at dramatizing the anxiety and dread pervading a society whose civil liberties are being daily eroded.”
—Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
“[A] stunning literary thriller.”
—The Seattle Times
“[Downing's] Station series, six titles before
Wedding Station, evoke the relentless terror of life in Berlin during World War II. Now, in a fierce and daring prequel, Downing reveals the back story to the propulsive series . . . An ideal choice for both Downing fans and newcomers.”
—New York Journal of Books
“Chillingly resonant.”
—Booklist, Starred Review
“A litany of sordid crimes that are both a MacGuffin for and a window into a chilling, compelling era.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Praise for the John Russell Thrillers "Epic in scope, Mr. Downing's 'Station' cycle creates a fictional universe rich with a historian's expertise but rendered with literary style and heart."
—The Wall Street Journal "Downing adroitly elucidates the morass that was post-World War II geopolitics without dumbing it down . . . One can only marvel at his talent for infusing such a rangy cast of characters with nuance and soul."
—The New York Times Book Review "A beautifully crafted and compelling thriller with a heart-stopping ending as John Russell learns the personal faces of good and evil. An unforgettable read."
─Charles Todd, author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge Series "Downing is one of a trio of exceptional writers (Philip Kerr and Alan Furst being the other two) who have managed to re-create a time and place when much of the world seemed to have gone temporarily mad."
—The Denver Post "There's nothing better than a well-written WWII thriller. Alan Furst continues to prove it, and now Downing has shown he can produce that creepy sense of paranoia along with the best of them."
—Rocky Mountain News 
