Book Log 2006 # 30: Brandenberg Gate by Henry Porter

You don't get too many Cold War thrillers any more - what with the fall of the Soviet Union and all - but that doesn't mean the genre is dead. Witness this book, in which an East German professor has to re-establish contat with a woman who lives in the West - a woman he knows to be dead.

The professor, like so many East Germans, has ties to the Stasi, and they want him to meet the woman to see what she's offering. He's reluctant, but when the Stasi throw his brother in jail, he's off to meet the dead woman. But is he working for the Stasi to get information, or for the West as a double agent?

Things unfurl from there, and with the story taking place in the fall of 1989, you get to play the story of the knowledge of what happened in real life. The two play out really well, proving that there is room in the current day for a trip down espionage's memory lane.

If you're a fan of LeCarre or the like, this should be right up your alley.