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1975: Halle-Neustadt is the pride of the communist state and now the site of a missing person’s case
Stasi Wolf
What you need to know before your trail
Karin Müller, sidelined from the murder squad in Berlin, jumps at the chance to be sent south to Halle-Neustadt, where a pair of infant twins have gone missing.
But Müller soon finds her problems have followed her. Halle-Neustadt is a new town – the pride of the communist state – and she and her team are forbidden by the Stasi from publicising the disappearances, lest they tarnish the town’s flawless image.
Meanwhile, in the eerily nameless streets and tower blocks, a child snatcher lurks, and the clock is ticking to rescue the twins alive .
Travel Guide
East Germany 1975 The author’s tour
“East Germany was a communist state set up in the years after the Second World War and very much dominated by the Soviet Union. I t had one of the highest standards of living in the eastern blog and although it was in many way Moscow’s puppet, living there was very different, even if the politics were the same.
My protagonist, Karin Muller is an Oberleutnant (or first Lieutenant) with the state police, the Volkspolizei (Literally People’s Police) although as a murder squad detective she works for the CID arm, the Kripo.
Looming large in the background is the East German secret police, the Ministry for State Security, more commonly known as the Statsi.”
Halle Neustadt
Halle Neustadt was a socialist city which really did exist and still does in the unifired Germany as part of neighbouring Halle. The author is keen to point out however that all events in the novel are fictional.
This is no ordinary town. Its streets have no names, its buildings just have numbers – many of them don’t even have people living in them – silent homes for a place where no one talks – the perfect place to hide a crime.
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
An interesting novel with some of the most fascinating history I’ve read about in a while. A ghost town which still exists and which was created for one purpose as a Communist outpost is a fascinating place to set a crime novel. The town which is sold as a worker’s paradise is anything but and it was a real thrill setting foot here for the first time in my literary life. Two babies have been abducted from a local hospital – in a place with no street names and no numbers, this case is not going to be easy. The town exists in some kind of limbo – Fidel Castro is about to visit and the authorities don’w want any embarrassment before he does. This is the star town to be shown off and made an example of.
The nightmare of Stasi control and manipulation hovers over every page and the period and the horror of that time, the claustrophobia and the empty harsh landscape is evoked with panache. There is a vague sense of menace which rumbles in the background and then hits a crescendo.
David Young has more than done his research and when reading this I imagined him as the puppet master dangling the strings of atmosphere, emotion, communism and death with his deft writing. Surveilling everything at the same time as he did with his words on the page below.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Stasi Wolf
Author/Guide: David Young Destination: Berlin, Halle Neustadt Departure Time: 1975
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