Then We Take Berlin: A Joel Wilderness Novel (The Joe Wilderness Novels Book 1)

Joe Wilderness is a World War II orphan, a condition that he thinks excuses him from common morality. Cat burglar, card sharp, and Cockney wide boy, the last thing he wants is to get drafted. But in 1946 he finds himself in the Royal Air Force, facing a stretch in military prison . . . when along comes Lt Colonel Burne-Jones to tell him MI6 has better use for his talents. Posted to occupied Berlin, interrogating ex-Nazis, and burgling the odd apartment for MI6, Wilderness finds himself with time on his hands and the devil making work. He falls in with Frank, a US Army captain, with Eddie, a British artilleryman and with Yuri, a major in the NKVD and together they lift the black market scam to a new level. Coffee never tasted so sweet. And he falls for Nell Breakheart, a German girl who has witnessed the worst that Germany could do and is driven by all the scruples that Wilderness lacks. Fifteen years later, June 1963. Wilderness is free-lance and down on his luck. A gumshoe scraping by on divorce cases. Frank is a big shot on Madison Avenue, cooking up one last Berlin scam . . . for which he needs Wilderness once more. Only now they're not smuggling coffee, they're smuggling people. And Nell? Nell is on the staff of West Berlin's mayor Willy Brandt, planning for the state visit of the most powerful man in the world: "Ich bin ein Berliner!" Then We Take Berlin is a gripping, meticulously researched and richly detailed historical thriller a moving story of espionage and war, and people caught up in the most tumultuous events of the twenty-first century. Formats : EPUB,MOBI,ORIGINAL_EPUB "A stylish spy thriller" of postwar Berlin -- the first in a thrilling new series from the acclaimed author of the Inspector Troy novels ( The New York Times Book Review ). John Wilfrid Holderness -- aka Joe Wilderness -- has gone from young Cockney cardsharp surviving the London Blitz to MI6 agent navigating war-ravaged Europe to his current career of "free-agent gumshoe" weathering Cold War fears and hard-luck times. Now he's being drawn back into the secret ops business when an ex-CIA agent asks him to spearhead one last venture: smuggle a vulnerable woman out of East Berlin. Arriving in Germany, it doesn't take long for Wilderness to discover he's become an unwitting pawn in a deadly game of atomic proportions. To survive it, Wilderness must follow a serpentine trail through his past, into the confidence of an unexpected lover, and go dangerously deep into a black market scam the likes of which Berlin has never seen. The author of the acclaimed Inspector Troy series, "Lawton's gift for atmosphere, memorable characters and intelligent plotting has been compared to John le Carré. . Never mind the comparisons -- Lawton can stand up on his own, and Then We Take Berlin is a gem" ( The Seattle Times ). "[The Joe Wilderness novels] are meticulously researched, tautly plotted, historical thrillers in the mold of World War II and Cold War fiction by novelists like Alan Furst, Phillip Kerr, Eric Ambler, David Downing and Joseph Kanon." -- The Wall Street Journal "[It] will thrill readers with an interest in WWII and the early Cold War era." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "A wonderfully complex and nuanced thriller." -- Kirkus Reviews “A stylish spy thriller” of postwar Berlin—the first in a thrilling new series from the acclaimed author of the Inspector Troy Novels (TheNew York Times Book Review). John Wilfrid Holderness—aka Joe Wilderness—was a young Cockney cardsharp surviving the London Blitz before he started crisscrossing war-torn Europe as an MI6 agent. With the war over, he’s become a “free-agent gumshoe” weathering Cold War fears and hard-luck times. But now he’s being drawn back into the secret ops business when an ex-CIA agent asks him to spearhead one last venture: smuggle a vulnerable woman out of East Berlin. Arriving in Germany, Wilderness soon discovers he’s being played as a pawn in a deadly game of atomic proportions. To survive, he must follow a serpentine trail through his own past, into the confidence of an unexpected lover, and go dangerously deep into a black market scam the likes of which Berlin has never seen. The author of the acclaimed Inspector Troy Novels, “Lawton’s gift for atmosphere, memorable characters and intelligent plotting has been compared to John le Carré. . . . Never mind the comparisons—Lawton can stand up on his own, and Then We Take Berlin is a gem” (The Seattle Times). “[The Joe Wilderness novels] are meticulously researched, tautly plotted, historical thrillers in the mold of . . . Alan Furst, Phillip Kerr, Eric Ambler, David Downing and Joseph Kanon.” —The Wall Street Journal “[It] will thrill readers with an interest in WWII and the early Cold War era.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “A wonderfully complex and nuanced thriller.” —Kirkus Reviews “A stylish spy thriller” of postwar Berlin—the first in a thrilling new series from the acclaimed author of the Inspector Troy Novels ( The New York Times Book Review ). John Wilfrid Holderness—aka Joe Wilderness—was a young Cockney cardsharp surviving the London Blitz before he started crisscrossing war-torn Europe as an MI6 agent. With the war over, he’s become a “free-agent gumshoe” weathering Cold War fears and hard-luck times. But now he’s being drawn back into the secret ops business when an ex-CIA agent asks him to spearhead one last venture: smuggle a vulnerable woman out of East Berlin. Arriving in Germany, Wilderness soon discovers he’s being played as a pawn in a deadly game of atomic proportions. To survive, he must follow a serpentine trail through his own past, into the confidence of an unexpected lover, and go dangerously deep into a black market scam the likes of which Berlin has never seen. The author of the acclaimed Inspector Troy Novels, “Lawton’s gift for atmosphere, memorable characters and intelligent plotting has been compared to John le Carré. . . . Never mind the comparisons—Lawton can stand up on his own, and Then We Take Berlin is a gem” ( The Seattle Times ). “[The Joe Wilderness novels] are meticulously researched, tautly plotted, historical thrillers in the mold of . . . Alan Furst, Phillip Kerr, Eric Ambler, David Downing and Joseph Kanon.” — The Wall Street Journal “[It] will thrill readers with an interest in WWII and the early Cold War era.” — Publishers Weekly , starred review “A wonderfully complex and nuanced thriller.” — Kirkus Reviews In 1963, freelance private investigator Joe Wilderness, a former MI6 agent and black market con artist, agrees to one last Berlin scam, which involves smuggling people, and brings his World War II gang of accomplices together once again