Berlin Red: An Inspector Pekkala Novel of Suspense

In Eastland’s excellent seventh and final Inspector Pekkala novel (after 2015’s Red Icon), Stalin has one last mission for Pekkala and his associate, Major Kirov, in April 1945. The English have an agent in Berlin who has knowledge of the Diamond Stream guidance system, which will give the V-2 rocket pinpoint accuracy. In its perfected form, the V-2 threat could provide the Germans with a bargaining chip in making a separate peace with the western Allies. The English want Pekkala to help them retrieve the information and the agent, but Stalin wants the weapon for himself. Pekkala can’t refuse because the agent whose life is imperiled is his long-lost fiancée, Lilya Simonova, and Hitler’s most skilled investigator is already searching for her. Pekkala must risk the death throes of the Third Reich to rescue his beloved Lilya and, just possibly, attain a future and freedom with her. Eastland, the nom de plume of Paul Watkins, convincingly explores the motivations of everyone from Pekkala to Stalin in this deeply personal story set against the broad canvas of horrific war. [em](June) [/em]