Book Review

Then we take Berlin
John Lawton is a new author to me – although I note that he has written several other books. I wish that I had come across him earlier.

This book is principally set in Berlin straight after the second world war. There are two characters whose sperate lives are tracked until their paths cross.

Joe is attached to English army intelligence with the task of tracking down former Nazis who are busy planning their escapes to countries where they can take on new personas. Nell is a young German girl whose parents had sent her to live with an uncle in the country when the allied bombing of Berlin commenced. She is returning to Berlin in search of news of her parents.
As a sideline Joe becomes involved with an American Army officer in smuggling stolen American Army coffee, cigarettes etc. to a Russian major in East Berlin. With army staff infighting, spying, smuggling, a counterfeiter and emerging German politics there is plenty going on.

For the last quarter of the book the story then leaps forward fifteen years. The characters have gone their separate ways but, through circumstances, to be reunited.

Only a clever story teller could put this together and John Lawton does it very well indeed. ‘Then we take Berlin’ is a descriptive novel with well drawn characters. Mystery and thriller overtones add to the mix without any way detracting from the story line. And just wait for the entirely unexpected ending, very clever writing.

In a revue of the book in ‘The Times’ says: ‘Lawton’s trick is to take the threads of history and weave them into his own tapestry’. I couldn’t put it better myself. Highly recommended.