A Death in Berlin

Title: A Death in Berlin (The Simon Sampson Mysteries #3)
Author: David C. Dawson
Publisher: Park Creek Publishing
Release Date: September 28, 2022
Genre(s): Historical Suspense
Page Count: 282
Reviewed by: Crabbypatty
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Blurb:

2023 Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Best LGBTQ+ Mystery

Berlin 1933: When the parties stop…the dying begins

The city that’s been a beacon of liberation during the 1920s is about to become a city of deadly oppression. BBC foreign correspondent Simon Sampson risks his life in a bid to save thousands from the growing Nazi threat.

He moves to Berlin where he meets British author Christopher Isherwood and his lover Heinz. He’s also reunited with his banter-partner Florence Miles, better known to her friends as Bill. She’s recruited him into the British intelligence services and he’s got the task of hunting down communist spies.

But when Simon is ordered to spy on an old college friend, his loyalties are brought into question. Who are his real enemies? And how much can he trust his masters?

Dawson builds a solid historical background as Simon Sampson relocates to 1933 Berlin, obstensibly as a BBC foreign correspondent, in the second book of the series. This is the Berlin of Christopher Isherwood (who briefly appears) as well as Hitler’s early days as German Chancellor. It was a time when people could still think “No. I don’t think we’ve got anything to worry about. It’s the communists they’re after. And the Jews of course.” And the stirrings of fascism were considered as “little more than a manifestation of patriotism.”

Simon, as an agent of British intelligence services and a closeted gay man, has a unique set of qualifications. “When one spends most of one’s waking hours watching how one presents oneself to the rest of the world, it becomes ludicrously easy to keep other secrets as well.” And through his relationships and acquaintance with several richly developed secondary characters (both real and fictional), Simon finds himself investigating the possibility of Germany’s covert rearmament, if his first love Justin, who is now a MP, may be a communist spy, and if the records of the renowned Sexual Institute in Berlin can be freed from the reach of the Nazi party.

Dawson’s skillful blending of actual historic events makes the espionage and intrigue especially engaging, and from a current standpoint, terrifying. Anyone who loves history knows the old adage “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it” (which Edmund Burke, George Santayana or Winston Churchill may have first said), and one cannot help but be aware that there are clear parallels to current developments in our nation and world.

My only niggle about this book is the enigmatic personality of Bill, Simon’s fellow spy and former BBC head of libraries. Bill is confounding, abrasive and a tough nut to crack (and appreciate.) 5 stars for A Death in Berlin and I anxiously wait the next book in the series!

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