David Downing

When an American journalist living in 1939 Germany agrees to write articles for the Soviets, he gets dragged into dangerous activities and is sought by warring factions when British and Nazi intelligence discover his actions.

Zoo Station

After he attempts to find his son, who is a soldier in the German army, John Russell is thought to be a German spy by the Soviets, who capture him and put him to use in their own clandestine scheme, parachuting him into Berlin behind German lines.

Potsdam Station

Helene Tursten

Part of a human torso washes up on a beach near Gothenburg, Sweden, so mutilated that its gender can only be established by DNA testing. A similar crime remains unsolved in Denmark. Detective Inspector Irene Huss is dispatched to Copenhagen to liaise with the police. A third and a fourth victim are discovered, both of them known to Huss. She fears the killer is tracking her, killing people with whom she is connected.

The Torso

Union Station

Visiting the great cities of the world while secretly working as a spy, Scottish car salesman Jack McColl seeks to prove himself on the eve of World War I only to encounter deadly adversaries and a suffragette journalist whose Irish-American family is embroiled in a movement Jack's bosses are fighting.

Jack of Spies

Silesian station

It is November 1941. John Russell is still living in Berlin, still enabled to stay by the American passport inherited from his mother, and still tied to the increasingly dangerous city by his love for two Berliners: his thirteen-year-old son, Paul, and his actress girlfriend, Effi. Now one of a small and dwindling handful of permitted and much-censored American journalists, Russell has begun to help the anti-Nazi Abwehr. At the same time, a combination of necessity and conscience push him into working for both the American and Soviet espionage services. As Russell and Effi come closer to the truth they tread ever more dangerously.

Stettin Station

An Alternative Second World War

Moscow Option

"In the elite company of literary spy masters Alan Furst and Philip Kerr . . . [Downing is] brilliant at evoking even the smallest details of wartime Berlin."─Washington Post Berlin, 1939: Anglo-American journalist John Russell survives in Nazi Germany by keeping his head down. He writes human-interest pieces for British and American papers, avoiding the investigative journalism that could get him deported. But war is on the horizon, and every day is fraught with new risks. When an acquaintance from his communist days approaches him to do some work for the Soviets, Russell is reluctant, but he agrees in hopes that it will allow him to keep his family together. One dangerous assignment leads to another, and when the British and the Nazis notice his involvement with the Soviets, Russell is dragged into the murky world of warring intelligence services.

"Spring 1915. As the Great War burns its way across Europe, Jack McColl, a spy for His Majesty's Navy, is stationed in India, charged with defending the Empire against Bengali terrorists and their German allies. In England, meanwhile, suffragette journalist Caitlin Hanley begins the business of rebuilding her life after the execution of her brother, an Irish republican sympathizer whose plot Jack McColl--Caitlin's ex-lover--had foiled. The war is changing everything, and giving fresh impulse to those causes--feminism, socialism and Irish independence--which she as a journalist has long supported. The threat of a Rising in Dublin alarms McColl's bosses as much as it dazzles Caitlin. It was one Irish plot which came between Jack and Caitlin in 1914, and it will take another to bring them back together, as both enemies and lovers"--

a novel of espionage during the First World War

One man's flag

Caught between Soviets and Americans, John Russell can't escape his role as an accidental spy Book 5 in the John Russell historical thriller series. It’s 1945, and British journalist John Russell has finally reunited with his German girlfriend, Effi, in London after a dangerous flight from war-torn Berlin. But Russell realizes his new life in England isn’t going to last when he is tracked down by Soviet agent Shchepkin, who helped Russell escape the disastrous last days of the war and the Russian army’s destruction of Berlin. It is time to repay the debt, and Shchepkin’s bosses in Moscow are not the forgiving types. Russell has no choice but to agree to be transferred back to Germany, where he will resume his cover as an investigative journalist and hand over US intelligence reports on the German Communist Party. Meanwhile, Effi struggles to revive her acting career, but she cannot fight the desire to uncover ex-Nazi Party members still at large in Berlin. In this dangerous new world, where alliances change every day, will John and Effi be able to leave the past behind? Or are the new enemies the same as the old?

A John Russell WWII Thriller

Lehrter Station

Laurie Williams

Paul Beeley

Josh and Amy have been best friends since childhood even though they are social opposites. Josh is an outcast with few friends, awkward and nerdy. Amy is a cheerleader, lead singer of a rising band, and very beautiful. Both dream of things to come but any plans they had are halted as they are set upon a very dangerous adventure.An ominous lightning storm hits their concert with thunderous fury. Most of those attending are taken away from the world they know, where social entanglements and peer pressure are their greatest concerns; and plunged into a brutal fantasy world where they have to fight against overwhelming odds. A world where monsters and magic threaten to destroy peace and mere survival becomes their greatest struggle.The Dragon Kings, an ancient and very powerful order, are preparing for war. Amongst the bewildered group, are individuals now able to harness special powers that only the Dragon Kings possess. They must adapt and learn how to use these powers in order to overcome the challenges before them, with hopes of returning home or joining the evil order.Ebook: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/363292

The Lightning Storm (Young Adult Edition)

Dragon Kings Saga

From bestselling author David Downing, master of historical espionage, comes a heart-wrenching depiction of Germany in the days leading up to World War II and the difficult choices of one man of conviction. In April 1938, a man calling himself Josef Hofmann arrives at a boarding house in Hamm, Germany, and lets a room from the widow who owns it. Fifty years later, Walter Gersdorff, the widow's son, who was eleven years old in the spring of 1938, discovers the carefully hidden diary the boarder had kept during his stay, even though he never should have written any of its contents down. What Walter finds is a chronicle of one the most tumultuous years in German history, narrated by a secret agent on a deadly mission. Josef Hofmann was not the returned Argentinian immigrant he'd said he was--he was a communist spy under Moscow's command trying to reconnect with remaining members of Germany's suppressed communist party. Hofmann's bosses believe the common workers are the only way to stop the German war machine from within. Posing as a railroad man, Hofmann sets out on his game of "Russian roulette," approaching Hamm's ex-party members one at a time and delicately feeling out their allegiances. He always knew his mission would most likely end in his death, and he was satisfied to make that sacrifice for the revolution if it could help stop Hitler and his abominable ideology. But as he grows close to the Gersdorffs, accidentally stepping into the role of the father Walter never had, Hofmann begins to wish for another kind of hope in his life.

Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

Examines the life, death, and legacy of African American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr

In the fourth and final installment of David Downing’s spy series, Jack McColl is sent to Soviet Russia, where the civil war is coming to an end. The Bolsheviks have won but the country is in ruins. With the hopes engendered by the revolution hanging by a thread, plots and betrayals abound. London, 1921: Ex–Secret Service spy Jack McColl is in prison serving time for assaulting a cop. McColl has been embittered by the Great War; he feels betrayed by the country that had sent so many young men to die needlessly. He can’t stomach spying for the British Empire anymore. He’s also heartbroken. The love of his life, radical journalist Caitlin Hanley, parted ways with him three years earlier so she could offer her services to the Communist revolution in Moscow. Then his former Secret Service boss offers McColl the chance to escape his jail sentence if he takes a dangerous and unofficial assignment in Russia, where McColl is already a wanted man. He would be spying on other spies, sniffing out the truth about MI5 meddling in a high-profile assassination plot. The target is someone McColl cares about and respects. The MI5 agent involved is someone he loathes. With the knowledge that he may be walking into a death trap, McColl sets out for Moscow, the scene of his last heartbreak. Little does he know that his mission will throw him back into Caitlin’s life—or that her husband will be one of the men he is trying to hunt down.

The Dark Clouds Shining

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.

Wedding Station

World War II is nearly over. For the Russians, the enemy is no longer Nazi Germany, but the American behemoth that threatens to topple the Communist revolution. Deep within the walls of the Kremlin, Stalin’s top man hatches a brilliant plan that will alter the course of postwar history—and it’s all based on a deception as simple as the shell game. Five years later, an atomic bomb detonates deep within the borders of the Soviet Union, stunning the experts who had predicted that Russian science could not produce such a devastating weapon for at least another generation. The Red Eagles traces the adventures of two spies, Jack Kuznetsky and Amy Brandon, as they track down the most deadly force in the world while hiding their true allegiances and intentions from their compatriots. They are the “red” eagles, sent to America by one of its enemies to steal the greatest secret of all: the key to producing the atomic bomb. Critically acclaimed spy thriller writer David Downing draws fascinating portrayals of Stalin and Hitler as they determine the fate of the world, drawing us at breakneck speed from the Kremlin to Manhattan and Washington to Cuba and New Zealand.

The Red Eagles

Berlin, 1948. Still occupied by the four Allied powers and largely in ruins, the city has become the cockpit of a new Cold War. The legacies of the war have become entangled in the new Soviet-American conflict, creating a world of bizarre and fleeting loyalties—a paradise for spies. As spring unfolds, a Western withdrawal looks increasingly likely. Berlin’s German inhabitants live in fear of the Soviet forces who occupy half the city, and whose legacy of violence has ripped apart many families. John Russell works for both Stalin's NKVD and the newly created CIA, trying his best to cut himself loose from both before his double-agency is discovered by either. As tensions between the great powers escalate, each passing day makes Russell’s position more treacherous. He and his Soviet liaison, Shchepkin, seek out one final operation—one piece of intelligence so damning it could silence the wrath of one nation and solicit the protection of the other. It will be the most dangerous task Russell has ever taken on, but one way or the other, it will be his last.

Masaryk Station

Returning home to Berlin in July 1939, British journalist John Russell learns that his girlfriend Effi has been arrested by the Gestapo. Having agreed to work for American intelligence in exchange for an American passport, Russell hoped he could stay in Germany with Effi and his son if war with England broke out, but now he's being blackmailed. The Gestapo will only free Effi if Russell will work for Nazi intelligence. His former Soviet connections make him a perfect spy. Russell agrees but secretly offers his services to the Soviets instead. He won't do anything too dangerous, though, and only if they'll sneak him and Effi out of Germany in an emergency. It seems like a good plan, but soon things get complicated. A Jewish girl has disappeared, and Russell feels compelled to search for her when the police won't. And the Soviets end up demanding more than Russell expected. As Europe lurches toward war, Russell must chase the latest stories while trying both to satisfy his secret masters and to retain some sense of personal integrity.

Silesian Station

In April 1945, Hitler’s Reich is on the verge of extinction. Assaulted by Allied bombs and Soviet shells, ruled by Nazis with nothing to lose, Berlin has become the most dangerous place on earth. John Russell’s son Paul is stationed on the Eastern Front with the German Army, awaiting the Soviets’ final onslaught. In Berlin, Russell’s girlfriend Effi has been living in disguise, helping fugitives to escape from Germany. With a Jewish orphan to care for, she’s trying to outlast the Nazis. Russell hasn’t heard from either of them since fleeing Germany in 1941. He is desperate to find out if they’re alive and to protect them from the advancing Red Army. He flies to Moscow, seeking permission to enter Berlin with the Red Army as a journalist, but when the Soviet’s arrest him as a spy, things look bleak—until they find a use for him that has him parachuting into Berlin behind German lines.

David Downing

About

Books

Join the club