Michael Russell (6)

Set in the 1930s, this mystery reveals much about the city of Danzig at that time. The city was created after WWI as part of the terms of the Treaty of Versaille. The city-state included Danzig plus about 200 villages and towns in the surrounding area. The area was inhabited primarily by Germans but was cut off from Germany to give Poland a large seaport. It was overseen by the League of Nations, a fledgling organization at the time.

Much of the action in the story takes place in Dublin but Detective Stefan Gillespie traces the origins to Danzig. In his hunt for a missing woman and for the killers of a man and a woman found in Dublin mountains, Gillespie falls for the friend of the missing woman.

It becomes clear that the so-called "free city" is becoming less and less free, as Nazi forces grow in influence there. The danger reaches out, trying to engulf the detective and his new love interest.… (more)

Stefan Gillespie works in law enforcement in Dublin. Ireland is a neutral country but both the British and the Germans circle round each other and Gillespie is charged with watching both sides. In a remote house a family group of four is found dead and Gillespie is asked to look into the murders. He finds a German radio and is concerned that there may be a link to a Nazi spy ring involving the IRA. Before he can investigate further Gillespie is given a mission to act as a diplomatic courier to Berlin where he finds that neutrality is no protection for Irish citizens as the German atrocities are beginning.
This is the fourth book in a series about Stefan Gillespie and the first that I have read. This made for some difficulties as there is a lot of backstory from previous outings that is not fully explained, eg. Gillespie is a fluent German speaker and has some German connections. The plot itself is rather disjointed. One part concerns the Nazi/IRA actions in Dublin and the multiple murders (apparently a true story), the other the link to the Nazi treatment of homosexuals and the disabled in Berlin. Despite all of this I found myself really enjoying the book as Russell is a convincing writer.… (more)

With his first two books, City of Shadows and, now, City of Strangers, Michael Russell has made me a fan. These books are a fascinating and intriguing mixture of fact, adjusted fact and fiction, as Russell explains in his afterword. I new little of pre WWII Ireland before I read these books, but Russell weaves his convincing characters and plot into a fascinating historical background. This is a good example of absorbing knowledge through enjoyment.
I would urge all lovers of crime, thrillers and espionage books to try these for themselves, whilst I wait patiently for the third in the Stefan Gillespie series or whatever else Michael Russell gives us next.… (more)