Berlin, Prague and Belgrade are not a lot of fun to live in after WWII!  John Russell, double agent working for the Soviets and the Americans, spends most of his time trying to figure out how to accomplish his missions for both of them and extricate himself from working for either of them.  He just wants to keep his wife and his daughter safe.

I have not read the earlier books in this series and I do think that would have helped with understanding the relationships between the characters but I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller anyway. Having spent a little time in Eastern Europe, this felt very realistic.  If you're a student of WWII or the Cold War, this book is an interesting novel about the time as those two are intersecting.

The settings feel real, the characters' dilemmas and emotions feel real, the secret agencies on both sides feel real.  I would place David Downing in the top rank of spy novel writers and he became one of my favorites with this book. Plenty of cloak and dagger action in this one!

This received this book through Goodreads giveaways and I was excited to have the opportunity to read it.