Zoo Station (John Russell book 1) by David Downing

305 Pages
Publisher: Soho Crime, Soho Press
Release Date: May 28, 2013

Fiction (Adult), Historical Fiction, World War II, Germany, Espionage


John Russell is a journalist living in Berlin in 1939. It is the beginning of Hitler’s reign of terror. The Jews are being persecuted and their businesses taken away. Their only hope is to get a visa and leave the country. Russell is friends of a Jewish doctor and his family. When the doctor is taken to a camp and dies mysteriously, Russell gets involved. Things get heated when the Soviets get involved.

The story has a fast pace, the characters are developed, and it is written in the third person point of view. The story is not only one of the Jewish family, or from a journalist’s point of view. It also includes espionage, and family relationships. If you like historical fiction around this time, you will enjoy this one.

This was a suspenseful espionage read. I loved the era and the historical details. It was very atmospheric of the time.
Many thanks to Soho press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The first in the John Russell series introduces the English journalist living in Germany in the months leading up to the outbreak of WWII. Russell has a German girlfriend and son, and despite his obvious dislike of the Nazi regime and all it stands for, Berlin is home, and he plans to stay as long as he can. For the most part, Russell is willing to keep his head down and avoid the attention of the Gestapo, but when a colleague is killed, and a Jewish family of his acquaintance is threatened, the journalist rather reluctantly agrees to take on a few subversive activities.

Downing does a good job of building tension, and even knowing how events will play out historically, I got invested in the personal stories. I look forward to reading the remainder of this series.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The story itself was really interesting and well thought out, but the narrative was long and dragged. The time period was well-captured, but I wish there had been more focus on the Jewish family that seemed to have a lot more interesting, albeit horrendous, events happening in their life. The main character was just boring and wavered so much to himself.