Book Log 2017 #30: Zoo Station by David Downing

John Russell is a journalist in pre-war Berlin. He has a bit of a complicated past, with a British and American background (he fought for Britain in World War I) and a spell in the Soviet Union as a committed communist. His present isn't that much less complicated - he's in the middle of leaving his wife (and mother of their young son) for an actress. It gets more complicated when someone from his communist days reappears and asks him to do some work for the Soviets. This gets the attention of both the Brits and the Nazis, who both prevail upon Russell to do some work for them as well.

This is a little more of a typical war/spy novel than the Night Soldiers series, though I did find it remarkable that Russell manages to maintain his journalistic cover while both being a spy and a resistance figure.

As you might guess, the Zoo train station does play a role in the book, which is at least the naming theme of this series (each book is named for a train station that figures in each book, with varying levels of importance).

I wasn't blown away by the book, but liked it well enough to stick with the series.