Mostly pretty good, a couple of points I could quibble but hey, it's a story. Historically seems reasonably accurate, which was good. Lost a point because the ending seemed rather anticlimactic - there were other points in the book which could have given much more satisfying endings. As it was, I don't think Amy would have behaved like that after her loss, but I cannot say more.

This is a great piece of historical fiction and a fantastic story. The plot kept me engaged throughout and the ending was really satisfying.

World War II spy story which I have enjoyed due to the combination of a good story and the atmospheric style of writing. Jack Hoste is a MI5 agent in a counterintelligence team working to nullify the Gestapo's efforts in the UK. The blitz is in full swing and he visits a marriage bureau trying to track down a target enemy agent. As the story unfolds, life during the war in London is illustrated very clearly through the clever use of the right words like " frightful, chummy and old boy". The story is very good with some twists but follows a well known formula which ensures a good read.

This is my first time reading the author (who is not the famous actor in case you wondered). I rarely read spy fiction and have been known to say it’s not my thing. I just may need to change my opinion. I really enjoyed this book. Mostly because it involves Nazi spies who unknowingly report Hitler’s comings and goings to MI5 and not the Gestapo. The characters are compelling and disturbing at times, especially Marita. Marita made my flesh crawl. She blindly believes in the Nazi cause and wants her spying to matter to Hitler and the Nazi’s. I found the relationship between Jack and Marita’s friend Amy compelling and terribly sad at times. This had all the hallmarks for a great, compelling read. I really enjoyed it and may give spy fiction another chance in future. I will definitely seek out the author’s backlist.

‘Our Friends in Berlin’ by Anthony Quinn tells a story of London in World War Two seldom told. It is a spy novel but not a thriller. It focuses on the individuals concerned and has a deceptive pace which means the threats, when they come, are more startling. Jack Hoste is not who he seems to be. He is not a tax inspector; he is not looking for a wife. He is a special agent who tracks down Nazi spies. And at night he is an ARP warden.
The juxtaposition of Hoste’s life of secrets is set nicely against that of Amy Strallen who works at the Quartermaine Marriage Bureau. Ordinary life does go on in London during the Luftwaffe bombing and Amy must match clients together, a matter of instinct rather than calculation. In order to be matched with the right person, clients are asked to tell the truth about what they are seeking, truths which may have been disguised or hidden until now. Client requests include ‘a lady with capital preferred’ and ‘not American’. Then one day she meets a new client who seems oddly reluctant to explain what he is looking for. The client is Jack Hoste and he doesn’t want a wife, he is searching for Marita Pardoe, a suspected Nazi sympathiser and friend of Amy in the Thirties. What unfolds is a story of spying, gentle romance, betrayal, fanaticism and the life of living in a bombed city.
Jack and Amy seem to run on parallel tracks, veering towards and then away from each other, both romantically unsure, both allow the real world to get in the way. And get in the way it does, in the shape of Marita. Quinn is excellent at building characters, he makes you care for them and that’s what keeps you reading. In a time of war, decisions are often made recklessly but Jack and Amy draw back from doing this. Both are people of honour, making the secrets they must keep and the lies they must tell all the more pertinent. The nature of truth is a theme wriggling its way through every page.
Anthony Quinn is a favourite author of mine, his novels are each quite different and I will read everything he writes. I read this one quickly.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

When Jack Hoste comes to the marriage bureau that Amy Strallen works in, he doesn't seem that eager to find a wife. however Amy keeps 'bumping into' Jack and she grows to like this mild-mannered accountant. After getting caught in a bomb raid Amy goes back to Jack's flat and discovers a collection of iron crosses. She immediately thinks Jack is a Nazi agent and reports him. But Jack is a double agent and Amy has been targeted because of her friendship with a much bigger fish.
Anthony Quinn is a superb writer of historical fiction which tells very human stories and if one approaches this book with that in mind one cannot help but admire. This book is being purported to be a rip-roaring spy thriller, that it is not. There is some violence and some intrigue but it is more about the relationships between people in the war and how emotions can be suppressed. The writing is wonderful and I felt attached to both Amy and Jack, they are likeable characters holding secrets. The plot is carefully constructed and the two violent incidents seem to come out of the blue. I have loved every book that Quinn has written and this is no exception.

i enjoy Anthony Quinn's novels. Each one is different and none are predictable...
Anthony Quinn's latest novel is set in war-time London. It is a spy novel with a difference. It follows 3 characters, Amy, Jack and Marita living through the Blitz. It has a different angle to other similar stories as it explores the spies in Britain trying to subvert the British war effort. As in all good spy novels nothing is what it appears to be. A tense, engaging novel with believable characters.An excellent read that will leave you on the edge of your sea!

An indication of a good book to me is not when I can’t put it down put when I take care not to read it too quickly. In the case of Our friends in Berlin I indeed took care to ration my reading.

Anthony Quinn is a favourite writer so I was delighted to be given a chance to read this pre publication. The London WW 2 setting was another draw. The main characters Amy, Jack and Marita are believable and interesting, and I especially enjoyed the insights into the Marriage Bureau in which Amy makes her living. The action when it happens is tense and well done, my only criticism is a rather unsatisfactory ending.
For lovers of the tv series Foyles War or the non fiction of Ben McIntyre this would be a perfect introduction to the novels of Anthony Quinn.

Elaine Davies August 2018

I was sent an ARC of this after reviewing Star of the North (great book, see my review) for the publisher. Unfortunately this didn't grab me in the same way. Although well written, spy novels (and films) tend to leave me cold.

Hi Karen,

My next review is:-

"Our Friends In Berlin" by Anthony Quinn, published in hard and soft covers on 12th July 2018, by Jonathan Cape, 288 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1787330979

After having read previous books by this very talented Northern Irish author, but which were all set in Ireland, I was very intrigued to read that this one was going to be set in London during the Second World War and I just had to read it and I’m very glad that I did.

It is March 1941 and London is enduring the Blitz and the long nights are filled with the sound of bombs falling and all buildings must have their windows blacked out with no light showing at all. Jack Hoste is an Air Raid Precautions(ARP) warden and has to inspect buildings to ensure they are obeying the black out instructions and also to help get people out of buildings after they have been bombed.

He also has another unofficial role which is to get any Nazi sympathisers into a secret group he has formed. He interviews them and considers whether they would be of any use in collecting information that would be helpful should the Germans start to invade at sometime in the future. Hoste also has a specific mission to contact a very dangerous Nazi agent and get her involved in his group.

Jack Hoste is very busy in these two occupations, but he hears about Amy Strallen, who works in a Mayfair marriage bureau and who before the War was a particular friend of this Nazi agent. So Jack decides to visit the Marriage bureau and then things start to develop in a very exciting way.

I 've always been fascinated in reading books set in either of the two World Wars and as I have, over the years read quite a lot of them it needs a particular skill of the author to encourage me to read on . The author has definitely done a lot of research and I was transported back into the past and definitely considered that he got the right atmosphere and period detail into the story.

I enjoyed the book tremendously and was only slightly disappointed with the ending but it was certainly an interesting alternative for this author and I hope he writes more stories set at this time as he has tremendous skills and I’ll definitely look out for them.

Recommended.

Best wishes,

Terry
(to be published on eurocrime.co.uk in due course)

This is a something just a little bit different from the standard espionage story and is written in an engaging, easy style that encourages the reader not to put the book down until it's finished. Although I'd guessed the main twist in the plot fairly on in the novel, this in no way detracted from the pleasure I got from reading it. There are some interesting back-stories along the way which cleverly help explain some of traits in the main characters. The ending, set a few years after the war had finished, is superb!

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with a copy in exchange for this honest review.

Our Friends in Berlin by Anthony Quinn

It is March 1941 and London is enduring the nightly torment of the Blitz. Jack Hoste is an Air Raid Warden and he spends more nights than not searching the ruins for life. Not even his own home is safe from the bombs. But this is only one side of Hoste’s life. He has worked to gather a group of Fifth Columnists, Nazi sympathisers who want nothing more than to welcome Hitler and his troops to British shores. Hoste collects their information. He is their Gestapo master with a direct line to Hitler’s headquarters. Through him, they can shape the outcome of the war. Or so they think. Hoste has his on target in mind – to find Marita Pardoe, the most dangerous spy on British soil.

Amy Strallen has a most curious job. She works at a marriage bureau and her role is to matchmake. Amy had thought that business would fall off after the outbreak of war but, on the contrary, men and women seem keener than ever to find their partner for life. The fear of death – either on the battlefield or in the Blitz – has done that. One day a new potential client arrives at the Bureau’s door, Jack Hoste. He has reason to believe that Amy Strallen may be the only person who can lead him to Marita Pardoe. Amy’s life it about to be transformed and so, too, is Jack Hoste’s.

Our Friends in Berlin is the first novel by Anthony Quinn that I’ve read but it certainly won’t be the last – I loved this novel. It presents the perfect blend – wartime spy story, with all of the tension and secrets that you’d wish for, and a deeply affecting love story that seems all of the more fragile because of the times in which it is set. London during the Blitz is terrifyingly brought to life as ordinary people grow used to constant sirens, sleeping in shelters, the noise, death and chaos all around them. I can’t think of another novel I’ve read that made it feel as horrific and yet also so extraordinarily mundane – this is what life has become and people dealt with it. True courage is shown in these pages alongside the fear and worry. I was immediately caught up in it all. And that’s even more I got to know the novel’s wonderful characters.

Both Jack and Amy are thoroughly fascinating and fully developed individuals. They are so different from one another but each as interesting. Jack’s secrets have made him the man he is. We only learn very slowly more about who that man is. Amy is as much in the dark as we are, even more so. Their stories couldn’t be more rewarding to read about.

Our Friends in Berlin moves to and fro between the years, taking us to 1930s’ Germany as well as to later in the war. I was hooked throughout. More than anything, the novel has such a strong plot and it is supported by an unexpected emotional side. War, particularly the First World War, has cast a deep shadow over many of the novel’s characters. Loss is commonplace but always terrible just the same. It’s not surprising that so many people are searching for love, especially as many have already experienced it and had it violently torn from them. The Nazi threat is also extremely real and very, very close. The work of the Fifth Columnists, including the enigmatic and curiously fascinating Marita Pardoe, is a genuine threat.

Our Friends in Berlin is such an involving and at times emotional tale of spies, love, menace and courage during the Blitz and its aftermath. It is superb. I can’t recommend it enough.

Our Friends in Berlin is an excellent espionage thriller by Anthony Quinn set in London during the Second World War.

As with all good espionage thrillers not everyone is whom they appear to be at first but the author cleverly exposes each layer of their, sometimes, complex characters.

The tension is maintained throughout to the end and the author has produced a first class book.

Thoroughly recommended

Our Friends in Berlin is an espionage thriller set in London during World War Two. I enjoyed it very much as it mixes historical events with fiction. Jack Hoste is secretly recruiting Nazi sympathisers to his Fifth Column, explaining that any information they find will be sent directly to Germany to help them in their war effort against the British. But is Jack who he appears to be, an Inland Revenue inspector who is also trying to track down the mysterious Mosely sympathiser Marita and how does she fit into this intrigue? I particularly liked Amy and her marriage bureau, who play a large part in the story and make it different from most other spy novels. Lots of questions make this a page turner and I can see it made into a film one day. Thanks to NetGalley and Jonathan Cape for the opportunity to read and review Our Friends in Berlin.

Our Friends in Berlin is another terrific novel from Anthony Quinn. Set in wartime London, it follows the shadow world of Jack Hoste, an MI5 agent masquerading as a member of the Gestapo. Hoste is trying to locate a Mata Hari type figure called Marita Pardoe.
For this he needs an unwitting accomplice, Amy Strallen, who was a good friend of Marita before the war. Marita may be a villain but she is cool under pressure and a born survivor. Amy works at a marriage bureau. Through her we get to see another side of wartime life. The war has made people keener to make an emotional connection, and the bureau is unexpectedly booming.
Quinn writes with his usual acuity. We get to see a lot of how their minds work and how they are feeling. Lots of times, characters miss signals about how others see them. Jack is unaware of how his long term girlfriend feels about him. Amy chooses not to see Marita making a pass at her on their walking holiday. These imperfections made them more real to the reader.
Tension increases throughout the book, as the war reaches its' endgame. The climax of the book is far from predictable. Five stars.

An intriguing blend of spy thriller and love story, set in London during World War II. It also mixes historical fact with fiction. The story begins with one of the main characters, Jack Hoste, trying to recruit a Nazi sympathiser to his group of "5th Columnists" (British subjects trying to engineer a Nazi victory in their own country).
But Hoste is not what he seems. He is really working for “the Section”, part of Britain's intelligence service, aiming to prevent any of these traitors from carrying out acts of sabotage, or even assassination.
He is also seeking out one of the Nazi Germany's top British agents, Marita Pardoe, a former leading light in Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists an organisation proscribed by the British government, following the start of the Second World War. Pardoe has a close friend, Amy Strallen with whom she travelled to Germany in the 1930's and who Marita thought might be a convert to the Nazi cause. But Amy, now a partner in a Mayfair marriage bureau, wasn't keen on her friend's anti-Semitic stance. However, her continuing friendship with Pardoe leads Jack Hoste to visit the marriage bureau, on the pretence of being a potential client, to discover if Amy knows of her current whereabouts. British Intelligence is keen to ensure Marita poses no threat to their attempts to turn Nazi agents in Britain and prevent her from learning any major military secrets.
The story jumps back to the mid 1930's, detailing Amy, Jack and Marita's various personal histories before moving ahead to 1944 with the imminent Allied invasion of Europe.
With Marita still at large, Hoste and his colleagues are determined that Nazi agents shouldn't discover details of "Operation Fortitude" - the allied plan which generated detailed plans for a decoy landing at Calais to mislead German intelligence, diverting men and armaments from the true D-day target of Normandy.
This book captures the atmosphere of 1940's London both during the London Blitz and the months leading up to the Normandy landings in June 1944. I felt a mixture of emotions about all 3 main characters at different times in the story. There are some wonderful cameos for lesser members of the cast of "Our Friends In Berlin" - Hoste's Section handler Tessa Hammond and his overall boss Traherne and Amy's spirited female friend "Bobby", a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
This is definitely not your usual all action spy thriller, but rather a glimpse of real life wartime London and people who don't fit the popular image of British patriotism and the "Blitz spirit".

Anthony Quinn: Our friends in Berlin, 9781787330986, trade paperback, Jonathan Cape (Penguin Random House UK) July 2018
Anthony Quinn’s spy thriller opens in war torn London in 1941, giving it a very atmospheric description of what it must have been like to survive in the Blitz. Amy Strallen works in a marriage bureau when she is approached by Jack Hoste. While she believes he is trying to find a suitable marriage candidate thru her bureau despite his odd behavior, his motives are different. Amy is the only connection to Marita, a Nazi sympathizer who has gone into hiding and is crucial to Jack’s work. He has been recruited by MI5 to infiltrate a group of British Nazi supporters who are feeding dangerous information to Berlin. When his contact to Amy succeeds leading him to headstrong Marita, a tight plot full of deception and unexpected events kept me turning the pages rather quickly particularly in the second half of the book. According to the publisher, the book was inspired by real events. Excellent holiday reading with a very believable ending.

At first this seemed like a standard spy thriller - the perspective is unusual - Nazis spying on Brits (although it reminds me of Conrad's set up in The Secret Agent - people are a little bit clumsy in their spying activity, and idealistic) - and that took me a moment. People's suspicions of followers of Mozley the great Hitler supporter and anti Semitic in UK at time of the war - but then the woman that Horst was looking for - is found - and they test each other in rather OTT ways - but she's just as cool as we'd hoped - even if she's on the wrong side. It takes a long time getting from A to B and some of the tricks of the trade are clumsy when they ought to be 100% slick ... but I enjoyed it and ws grabbed at about 20% mark ... a good read.

An interesting tale of wartime intrigue and love told in an atmospheric manner. Set in London mainly around the Blitz this is a rollicking good yarn. Who's a good guy or a baddie keeps one entertained throughout. Beautifully described, recommended.

Nazi spies in war-torn London

I really enjoyed this book. It is one of those stories that starts quite slowly but you get drawn into the plot and really want to know the ending.

Jack Hoste is in charge of running various British citizens who are sympathetic to Nazi Germany and gathering information for Hitler and the Reich to help them win the war. In reality, however, Jack is working for the British Government and is treading a very fine line in ensuring his real sympathies are kept secret.

His main priority is to find the most dangerous Nazi spy in England, Marita Pardoe. He discovers that she had had a friend in her student days who went on holiday with her to Germany. Amy Strallen is now co-running a marriage bureau so Jack arranges to meet her by pretending to be a client. These two totally different characters feel a connection between each other and Amy is drawn into the plot.

The storyline is fast moving with many twists and turns and a very surprising ending. However, this book is so compelling to read because of the way the author brings you into London during the blitz. The descriptions of some of the raids and the aftermath really make you feel how it must have been for everyone at that time.

There is also a description of how Amy and Marita first met and what they did in 1935 which helps you to realise why the ending happened as it did.

I would like to read more by this author as he has a very readable style and although this was quite a long book I finished it within a few days. Highly recommended.

Dexter

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review