A Darker State

Author/Guide: David Young

Why a Booktrail?

1970s: For the Stasi, it’s not just the truth that gets buried . . .

ISBN: 978-1785760709
Genre: Thriller

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What you need to know before your trail

When the body of a teenage boy is found weighted down in a lake, Karin Müller, newly appointed Major of the People’s Police, is called to investigate. The case is difficult enough but she has an added obstacle for everything she and her team do is watched by the Stasi.

It quickly becomes clear that there is a terrifying conspiracy at the heart of this case. One day the son of Müller’s team member goes missing

This case is attracting real danger and there seems no end in sight

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Travel Guide

Berlin

East Germany in the 1970s, during the Cold War is a very unique setting for any novel and David Young knows the place better than most. His evocative writing takes you back and places you at its beating evil heart so much that you might cower at some scenes and turn away from others, but you can do so in the knowledge that this was how is was.

The Wall separates East and West and two very different worlds. It’s even called different things depending what side you are on. Karin has just finished a case in Halle Neustadt and is now back in Berlin

The city is still dear to her:
“She peered eastwards along the Karl Marx Allee marvelling at its grandeur. Yes the Republic wasn’t perfect. The methods of the Minister for State SEcurity that she;’d encountered in her previous investigation…..had left her feeling uneasy about being so aligned to the state.”

Karin is an East German and like everyone else seems to have underestimated the power and the lengths to which the Stasi will go. Theirs is a bleak and cruel world but no one dare get in their way. The 1970s are cruel here and the police methods available sadly lacking – restriction is a word which describes every way of life.