Stasi Child

Starred review from June 12, 2017
Set in East Berlin in 1975, British author Young’s outstanding first novel and series launch dramatizes the inherent difficulty of policing honestly in a police state. Karin Müller, of the People’s Police, is roused in the middle of the night after the body of an unidentified teenage girl is found in a cemetery near the Berlin Wall, known in East Germany as the Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier/Rampart. When Müller arrives at the scene, she’s taken aback by the presence of Klaus Jäger of the Ministry of State Security, or Stasi, who informs her only that she’s been ordered to assist him. Müller is further discomfited by the official Stasi explanation for the death—that the girl was “apparently shot from the West—possibly by western guards—while escaping into the East.” Quickly discovering evidence contesting that unlikely scenario, she finds herself in a dilemma when Jäger directs her to focus on identifying the corpse rather than the killer. Fans of Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko will welcome Müller. Agent: Adam Gauntlett, Peters, Fraser & Dunlop (U.K.).