Dan Fesperman discusses his latest Cold War Spy Novel, Winter Work

In this conversation with Spybrary host, Shane Whaley, award-winning spy author Dan Fesperman reveals more about the real-life espionage events that inspired his latest novel, set in Berlin in 1990, Winter Work.

Watch the interview on YouTube on our relaunched Spies and Books – the Spybrary YouTube Channel

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So what is Winter Work all about?

The Berlin Wall has fallen and in the ensuing power vacuum, a former Stasi officer and a CIA agent must fight for their lives. On a chilly early morning walk on the wooded outskirts of Berlin, Emil Grimm finds the body of his neighbor, a fellow Stasi officer named Lothar, with a gunshot wound to the temple and a pistol in his right hand.

Despite appearances, Emil suspects murder. If it were a few months earlier, he would have known just what to do. But now, as East Germany disintegrates, being a Stasi colonel is more of a liability than an asset. More troubling still is that Emil and Lothar were actively involved in a final clandestine mission.

Now Emil must finish the job alone and on uncertain ground where old alliances seem to be shifting by the day. Meanwhile, CIA agent Claire Saylor is sent to Berlin to contact a ranking Stasi officer, although details of her mission are suspiciously sketchy and her superior seems to have a hidden agenda.

When her first rendezvous goes dangerously awry, she realizes the mission is far more delicate than she has been led to believe. With the rules of the game changing quickly, and as their two missions intersect, Emil and Claire find themselves on unlikely common ground, fighting for their lives against a powerful enemy lurking in the shadows.

Books And Resources mentioned in this episode of Spies and Books – Spybrary with Dan Fesperman

• Winter Work by Dan Fesperman
• Safe Houses by Dan Fesperman
• The Cover Wife by Dan Fesperman
• The Double Game by Dan Fesperman
• Dan Fesperman Books
• The Man Without A Face – Markus Wolf
• Markus Wolf, spy chief dubbed The Man Without a Face, dies at 83
• The Main Enemy by Milton Bearden and James Risen
• The Berlin Exchange by Joseph Kanon
• Matchmaker A Spy in Berlin by Paul Vidich
• The 125 best spy writers, according to Tim Shipman
• The Spybrary Community for spy fans