The Stasi Game and another ‘dip’ back into the darker days of the GDR and the political expediency exercised by the “Secret Police”.
David Young has once more captured the uncertainty and frustrations of a police officer in the People’s Police force. As we follow Karin Müller and her small team in this riveting and disturbing thriller series. Generally speaking they have as little freedom as the rest of the East German population and never stray from the observation and control of the Ministry for Security - The Stasi.
Karin’s own career seems to be over in terms of authority and scope to conduct investigations. She has few allies left supporting her and watching her team’s back, indeed she seems to be a detective in a name only.
Although The Stasi have been all over the case her team are sent to Dresden to give the illusion of a murder investigation being resolved. In actual fact this is indeed window dressing and slight of hand. The Stasi want nothing of the actual truth revealed just the motions gone through masking their concerns and involvement.
It has ever been the case in all Karin’s work. But what marks her out is a tenacity to find the truth and follow up even the most obscure leads uncovered.
However, beyond the usual manipulation of her working brief she has a sense that the overseeing powers want her to fail sufficiently with blame such that her career is over.

Again the author has expanded facts and research into these times to fashion with great imagination a historical thriller. The use of saturation bombing during World War II and the reprisals by the Allies in cities like Dresden is key to this novel. These factors of using the political fallout in Western Europe the rise of the wall and influence of state control makes this quite a unique series of detective novels. Overlaying fact with a fiction that reflects the experiences of the German people and the rise of East Germany yet avoiding many of the clichés of early spy fiction.
Indeed Karin is an interesting protagonist. A loyal socialist, a believer in the principles of the state despite her own experiences and crooked hand dealt by those above her.
Her uncertainty and confusion have previously infringed upon her work but never left her renouncing her core values. She is therefore a great character for readers to get behind and her setback and endangerment leaves those following her story distressed and desperate she overcomes. So the pages of the book come alive in Karin’s presence and the words depicting her actions and work to solve this murder investigation seem to contain a latent energy like the buzz around some power lines.
Her motivation is clear and focused even when others seek to confuse, thwart and undermine her investigation. As a by-stander and witness to her betrayal you want to save her which propels you through the pages in equal measure of fear and uncertainty.

I liked the author’s care and support to new readers to his books. His introduction and Author’s note will help those coming fresh to this series. I think these are a remarkable collection of books with a strong female lead whose biggest disadvantage is having employers who want to suppress or modify the truth. This parallels her inner struggles with a regime that has noticeable benefits, given her a career but saps her integrity and sense of justice.

If this is the final adventure for her then I can report that despite all efforts to the contrary she has remained true to her self, and, as the author, David Young has remained faithful to his many readers.

We’ve covered the previous five instalments of David Young’s excellent Karin Müller/Stasi series, and Stasi Game is, sadly, possibly the last. As in the other novels, Young takes historical events and applies a police procedural to portray ‘socialism with a human face’ as Alexander Dubček might have put it. By this time, the idealism of Müller and the gang has worn extremely thin: the detective protagonist and her nemesis Jäger have fallen from grace. There is a murder to be investigated, but things are not what they seem and it becomes clear that people are being set up.
Young has spent most of this series picking apart East Germany’s claims to be a people’s paradise. But the DDR didn’t operate in a vacuum, either within Germany’s history, or in its own lifetime. The SED government wasn’t the only one to tell its people half-truths. Does war excuse the British government’s actions in the run up to the bombing of Dresden in 1945? Stasi Game explores how regimes ostensibly at philosophical odds bargain with each other to keep their reputations intact. If they can earn some hard currency at the same time then all the better. Oddly, the subject matter is so compelling that the police procedural part almost gets in the way.
This is a fine way for the series to bow out, although I have a couple of regrets: first, that my wish for a shoot-out in the Palast der Republik was not to be; second, that we got to read so little about Jäger. Perhaps a spin-off series, Mr Young?

The Stasi Game is the sixth in the Karin Muller series and for me it's one of the strongest . If you have read Young's previous novels you'll know what to expect as the plot follows a familiar pattern. It's an engrossing, gripping series that's an easy read with a strong heroine and a great setting. It can be read as a standalone but I'd recommend starting at the beginning to make the most of this enjoyable series.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC.

Young's Stasi series of novels are great. This one is no exception, blending Muller's personal life, stresses of being a working single parent, her weaknesses and occasional poor decisions plus Young's pick of a theme of life in East Germany that we may or may not know about. All goes to make a good novel

The added benefit of this apart from being a really good book is that it's a standalone novel - so, it's great to dip into this, even if you haven't read the rest of the series.

One thing I'm unhappy about - the blurb says this is the last of the Mulller/Stasi novels - shame, I'm sure there's huge mileage still in the series - at least one around the fall of the wall and perhaps another as Muller's career manages [or perhaps not] the transition to policing in a united, or perhaps not so united, Germany

‘The Stasi Game’ is the sixth, and allegedly the last, book in the series featuring Karin Muller. I have read and adored every single book in the series. I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Stasi Game’ but more about that in a bit.
‘The Stasi Game’ really appealed to me because the story takes place in a country that I love (Germany), some of the language used gives me the excuse to use my German degree (which I haven’t used since the day I graduated) by saying the words out loud and it involves a period of history which fascinates me and I don’t really know that much about- that of post war Germany, when the country was literally split in two. I went to Berlin with my Sixth Form History group not that long after reunification and even though a few years had passed, the differences between East and West Berlin were still really evident. Anyway sorry about my burblings about Germany and back to the review I do go.
I was drawn into this story from the moment I caught a glimpse of the cover of ‘The Stasi Game’ and the story within the book’s covers sealed the deal as it were. I knew that I was going to be in for one hell of a fantastic read and then some. I was spot on too. I started reading the book in the morning and I had it finished by late afternoon. The story was that good that I just couldn’t put the book down for fear of missing something and I had a need to know what happened. For me, ‘The Stasi Game’ really was an unputdownable, page turner of a read. I hope that this isn’t the last we see of Karin Muller or of East Germany- hint hint.
‘The Stasi Game’ is superbly written but then I have thought that to be true of the whole series. The fact that David Young is so passionate about East Germany and the fact that he has done lots of careful research into the Stasi etc helps the overall story seem that bit more authentic. I literally felt as though I had borrowed the Tardis from Dr. Who and travelled back in time to 1980s East Germany. I love the way in which David Young weaves historical fact into the story and makes you look at things in another light. That’s how I felt at any rate. For me, ‘The Stasi Game’ was a tightly plotted, tense, atmospheric and dramatic page turner of a read that gripped me from start to finish and had me on the edge of my seat throughout.
In short I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Stasi Game’ and I would recommend it to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of David’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

Stasi Game is the 6th book in the thrilling series of Historical Crime mystery thriller starring Karin Müller, by Author David Young.

Following the events of the previous book, Müller finds herself demoted and investigating crimes below her usual level. But when a strange crime turns up, a body set in concrete, with just an arm sticking out, Karin and the team are called in.

As ever with the Stasi involved the case isn’t as simple as it could be.

Set in Dresden in the early 80s, this story delves into war world 2 and the Dresden Bombings of the time, a mystery that is deep with intrigue, David Young has crafted a fascinating and quite shocking thriller deeply rooted in Dark history.

This is a compelling, engrossing, cracking mystery thriller, with all of the components that have made this series just how good it is.

A quite brilliant series has reached its possible end, and David Young has brought the finale to a quite fitting end.

One of my all time favourite series of books, Im sadly writing my final review about Karin and the team, but have hope maybe one day Karin will return. If not, I’m happy in the knowledge that David Young has a new project on the way and that there will be more from this extremely knowledgeable and talented author.

Highly Recommended

The Stasi Game is the sixth instalment in the Karin Müller series, set in East Germany during the Cold War. It's March 1982 and it has now been 3 years since the escapade that disgraced both Müller, Hauptmann in the East German Volkspolizei, and her assistant, deputy, Oberlautnant Werner Tilsner, who she's a little wary of after uncovering his past as part of Hitler Youth. Their job now entails helping out short-staffed local police forces and it isn't long before they are dispatched to Dresden to investigate the murder of a man discovered encased in concrete at the site of a half-finished apartment block in the NeuGorbitz district of the city. While there she notices several people overlooking the goings-on and realises they are agents of the Ministry for State Security, better known as the Stasi, but why are they so interested in the case? The much-feared Stasi appear to be being uncharacteristically helpful and Karin can't stop herself from wondering why they care so much about one man.

Meanwhile, we step back in time to the 1930s and are introduced to Lotti Rolf and 12 year old British boy Arnold Southwick from Hull, who met when Arnold and his family were on holiday in pre-war Dresden. They keep in touch as pen pals as both Hull and Dresden are bombed. Can this be related to Concrete Man? This is a compulsive, riveting and well researched finale of an incredible fact meets fiction series and I am genuinely sad but at least it goes out on a high. The story touches on the controversial firebombing of Dresden by the Allies in February 1945 which killed and maimed at least 25,000 people and destroyed 1,600 acres of the city and its infrastructure. The firebombing has been called a war crime but no one has been held accountable for it. It's a well woven story that pitches the Stasi against MI6 and has enough suspense and danger running throughout that it's difficult to put it down. A fantastic and engrossing conclusion to a superb series. Highly recommended.

I discovered the 'Stasi' series back in February when I read Stasi Winter, the fifth book featuring Karin Müller of the East German People's Police. I enjoyed it so much that I made a plan - unfortunately as yet unfulfilled - to go back and read the earlier books ready for the next book in the series. Imagine my dismay therefore to read that The Stasi Game is the last book in the series (depending on how you interpret the author's teasing comment in the Acknowledgments). Luckily for those of us who've not yet read the whole series, The Stasi Game has been designed as a standalone although there are a few brief references to events in previous books.

Opening in 1982 and set largely in Dresden, The Stasi Game begins with a dramatic prologue and then transports the reader back to events in the months leading up to it. There are occasional forays further back in time, to the period of the Second World War and a friendship between two young people the full relevance of which will only gradually be revealed. Central to these sections of the book is the still controversial firebombing of Dresden by the Allies in February 1945 which killed thousands and destroyed much of the city. The vivid first-hand account of the raids is one of the standout parts of the book.

From the very start of their investigation into the death of the man they refer to as Concrete Man, Karin Müller and her team find themselves playing a cat and mouse game with the Ministry of State Security, better known as the Stasi. No prizes for guessing which is the cat and which the mouse. In addition, Müller finds herself coming face to face with an old adversary and begins to wonder if, in fact, she has been set up to fail all along. But why, and by whom?

As the case progresses, amongst all the twists and turns, some very dirty wartime secrets - as well more recent ones - are unearthed. The book's final climatic scenes continue where the prologue left off, leaving the reader to wonder what the future holds for Müller and her colleagues. If this is indeed the end of the series, then The Stasi Game is a lesson in how to go out on a high and leave the reader wanting more.

The Stasi Game is the sixth and probably final instalment of David Young’s excellent Cold War crime thriller and like the previous books it is another outstanding read and one that deserves to be read widely.

Set in Dresden in 1980 Karin Muller is faced with a body buried in concrete and with its fingerprints having been removed.

The story touches on the heavy bombing of both Dresden and Hull and uses this to weave into a battle between the Stasi and MI6.

This series has been consistently excellent throughout and The Stasi Game is a very fitting finale

Highly recommended

This was a real page-turner, with plenty of interesting historical insight and intrigue. Though it's set in a different time and area, I'd definitely recommend this to fans of Volker Kutscher's Babylon Berlin.

I haven't read any of the previous Karin Müller books, but enjoyed this as a standalone.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Bonnier Books UK for an advance copy of The Stasi Game, the sixth novel to feature police detective Karin Müller of the Berlin Kripo.

It’s 1982 and Karin and her assistant, Werner Tilsner are still in disgrace after the events of 3 years ago and have become a team sent to help out local forces that are short staffed. They are sent to Dresden to investigate the murder of a man found encased in concrete. It quickly becomes apparent that the Stasi is controlling the case and that there is much more at stake than one murder.

I was hooked by the intro to the novel which suggests that Karin has walked into a Stasi trap but offers no resolution. The novel then flashes back to the start of the investigation and follows a linear timeline from there. It intersperses the investigation with the story of two characters who met as children and have recently reconnected in Dresden. How these two play into the investigation is part of the puzzle.

I liked the cat and mouse aspects to the novel with Karin and Tilsner being pulled this way and that by official Stasi policy and officers with their own agenda, although it was difficult to see clearly what exactly was going on, probably much like life in general in the DDR. I also like the sense of dread and tension that pervades this series as there could be real personal, not just professional, repercussions for getting in the way of the Stasi. The problem with this is that, due to their secrecy and convoluted priorities, you have no idea if you are crossing them until they tell you. I think the novel is well plotted, keeping many aspects of the motive well concealed and covering some serious historical events that readers may not be aware of. None of this, however, was enough to hold my attention and I found myself dipping in and out and putting it down in favour of other things. The ever changing point of view and timeline and the general fuzziness of events did not absorb me.

There is a definite sense of change in the air in this novel. Karin, Tilsner and Stasi Colonel Jäger all seem dispirited, by their professional demotions and also a growing disillusionment with the system they live under. I know that the Wall didn’t come down until 1989 but I assume that this is the author portraying the start of the general dissatisfaction that led to it. This is also shown in other small acts of disobedience and protest.

I have rated this novel at 4* as it has an interesting plot and setting, good writing and an exciting finish. Personally I didn’t like the format but it probably won’t bother most readers.

Firstly thanks to NetGalley and Bonnier Books UK for the ARC of Stasi Game by David Young. I love the Karin Muller series, to the point where I have been ranting and raving about the series on Twitter / Readers First.

Dresden, East Germany, 1980 (its been a year or two since the events of Stasi Winter for Karin Muller and Werner Tilsner) and a man's body is found buried in concrete at a building site in the new town district. Muller is called to the scene and finds the body has some unidentifiable features that will make the investigation all that more difficult.

Muller finds she is up against her foes in the Ministry of the State officials - Stasi officers in the local office and Stasi officer Jager is back to interrupt Muller and her team.

We are introduced to Lotti Wolf and Arnold Southwick as we are dragged back to the 1930's as the two teenagers meet at a holiday camp whilst Arnold is visting with his family from the UK. Lotti is immediately besotted with Arnold - a young teenage love before Arnold and his family cut their holiday short and return back to Hull in the United Kingdom.

Arnold & Lotti begin a penpal relationship from the UK/Germany as the war rages throughout Germany & UK with bombings in Arnold's and Lotti's home towns. Lotti and Arnold become emotionally and physically scarred by the effects of the war and how it shapes their future.

Muller, now faced with the task of teaming up with Tilsner again - even though she doesnt fully trust him after uncovering the truths about his involvement as a Hitler youth few years back.

Karin and the team battle through the political minefield that the Stasi have set up for her to try and solve the case of the body found in the cement,.

I thoroughly enjoyed Stasi Game - the surroundings, the characters involved and the case itself set up the story for a worthwhile conclusion and hopefully not the end of the series.

I’m a little sad writing this review. It’s likely this is the last book in the Karin Müller series. I have absolutely loved these novels and The Stasi Game is no exception. David Young has provided great insight into life in East Germany. His research is second to none. It’s fair to say David has made Karin go through a lot over the years. Demoted after her last escapade, she finds herself in Dresden rather than Berlin. She’s with her trusted (?) colleagues Werner Tilsner and Jonas Schmidt. A body’s been found in concrete on a building site. A few suspicious looking builders suggests the Stasi are looking at this from a distance but making Karin and her team do all the hard work. So Karin is back playing cat and mouse with the Stasi but it isn’t long before she realises there’s more than one cat in this game.

As always, there’s a historical angle to this story. David has looked at a number of events in his past books but this is possibly the most controversial, even today. The heavy bombing of Dresden in February 1945 caused a firestorm that killed at least 25,000 people. Oxygen was sucked out of the air and German citizens died either of asphyxiation or were burnt to death. Was Dresden, the Florence of the Elbe, a legitimate target and therefore bombing was a justifiable act or was it a city of culture obliterated in a war crime? These things are looked at in a very interesting way and certainly made me think.

Apart from the serious nature of this novel, there was one bit that made me laugh out loud. I won’t tell you what it is but David Young obviously had some foresight when he wrote The Stasi Game. All I will say is that the favouritism and action of rewarding deeds in1980s East Germany is very much alive and well in this country today. You’ll know what I mean when you read that section!

Of course, the other star in this book is East Germany itself. Across the series David Young has taken us on a tour from East Berlin to Rügen (East Germany's largest island) to Dresden to name just a few. It's a country of ruins and new concrete housing blocks. Young really plays on the disparity of the two as East Germany seeks to obliterate the past in favour of an egalitarian future. Except of course, Karin knows that not all are equal in her home country.

So is this really the last book in the Karin Müller series? The ending suggests it could be. The acknowledgements hint maybe it’s not quite the end of the road. Personally I would love to see one more book. This novel is set in the early 1980s. There is clearly one more recent historical event that needs to be looked at. Karin Müller needs to be there when the Berlin Wall falls. And given the ending of The Stasi Game, I really think she ought to be.

The Stasi Game is the 6th and "probably", according to author David Young, the last in the deservedly popular series featuring Volkspolizei officer Hauptmann Karin Muller . Regular readers of the series will know that since the events of the previous book ,Stasi Winter,she's been demoted from her previous rank and is under a cloud of suspicion.

The book is set in Dresden and begins in March in 1982 with Karin finding herself walking into a trap, the reader is left in suspense as it then backtracks to February of that year and the story of how she found herself in such dire straits. This begins with a dead body found almost completely buried in concrete on a building site where Karin , her not always so trusty deputy Werner Tilsner and forensic officer Jonas Schmidt are called to investigate under the watchful,and not overly discreet, eyes of the Stasi, the much feared and loathed State Police.

Karin and her team are "aided " in their investigation by an uncharacteristically helpful Stasi which makes them highly suspicious as to the veracity of, and the motives behind, the shared information. Karin wants the truth,the Stasi want "their" truth, which is not necessarily the same thing.

There's a backstory beginning with a brief holiday romance between 12 year-old British boy Arnold on holiday in pre-war Dresden and local girl Lotti. As they experience bombing raids in their receptive countries during the war years both are left scarred in different ways leading to their involvement in political shenanigans,Stasi plots, conspiracy theories, and murky schemes that lead to Karin finding herself in the mortal danger related at the beginning of the book.

The Stasi Game maintains the standard of an excellent series with Karin and the team not sure who to trust as the investigation continues ,not least as they're still under a shadow after the events of Stasi Winter and one of those trying very hard to convince Karin that he's on her side is old nemesis Klaus Jager . As ever David Young brings the paranoia of East Berlin to life and even when not explicitly mentioned the reader is aware of the ominous and insidious presence of the Stasi being constantly in the minds of the population, not least Karin Muller and her team.
The book can be read as a standalone but readers who have read the previous books in the series will enjoy it a lot more.

Thanks to Bonnier Books UK and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

David Young's Karin Müller series of books deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the legendary Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels. Reader's of Kerr's richly contextualised crime novels, that span the tumultuous years of the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany and the years beyond, will understand that great historical crime fiction is an alchemic blend of meticulous research, a compelling plot and an instinctive feel for a particular historical era. These are the hallmarks that make a complete novel of this sub-genre of crime fiction and something which Young has in common with Kerr. Kerr has sadly passed, but Young is a worthy compatriot - even heir apparent - to the legendary author. So, it is with some sadness that we learn 'The Stasi Game' could be the last in the Karin Müller series. This book, set in the 1980s, sees us hurtling toward the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the collapse of its communist satellite states and the reunification of Germany. But, before we mourn the end of this enthralling series, let's enjoy one final outing with Karin and her comrades in the totalitarian world of East Germany. We pick up where we left the last book. Karin has been demoted and is now part of a floating murder squad. The mysterious case of a murdered man found buried in newly laid concrete brings Müller and co. to Dresden. A challenging case is made even more complex by its political overtones. Students of this era will know that distinctions between ordinary, everyday crime and political crime were arbitrary in both socialist and fascist states. Which of course brings us to the all pervading tentacles of the Secret Police - the Stasi. Solving the case will entail Karin walking the perilous tightrope which separates political expediency from her instinctive pursuit of the truth. The two do not necessary cohere in East Germany, so what will Karin do? Well, I think you can guess, and the truth, as Karin eventually discovers, is even darker than she imagined. 'The Stasi Game' is proof-positive that David Young is at the top of his game. Historical crime fiction at its classy best.