''Stasi Child'' is a novel by David Young which won the 2016 CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger for the best historical crime novel of the year. It was also longlisted for the 2016

Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award The Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award is one of the UK's top crime-fiction awards, sponsored by Theakston's Old Peculier. It is awarded annually at Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of ...

Plot

The novel is set in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

in the mid-seventies and follows a double-stranded narrative. The main story is told in third-person through the eyes of

Volkspolizei The ''Deutsche Volkspolizei'' (DVP, German for "German People's Police"), commonly known as the ''Volkspolizei'' or VoPo, was the national police force of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1945 to 1990. The Volkspolizei was a h ...

detective Oberleutnant Karin Müller, who is investigating the murder of a teenage girl found in a cemetery in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

, apparently having been shot by western guards while attempting to escape into the East. Müller’s ‘handler’ is

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...

lieutenant colonel Klaus Jäger who warns her the investigation is limited to identifying the girl – not challenging the official version of the killing. Müller disregards this warning, and her story eventually coincides with a

first-person narrative A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller, ...

told in the present tense by Irma Behrendt. Irma is an inmate of a severe Jugendwerkhof housed in the former

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

holiday complex of

Prora The Colossus of Prora, commonly known as simply "Prora", is a building complex in the municipality of Binz on the island of Rügen, Germany. It was built by Nazi Germany between 1936 and 1939 as part of the Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch F ...

on the island of

Rügen Rügen (; la, Rugia, ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where ...

. Although the plotlines converge, Young keeps the narratives separate through the climax of the book in the

Harz The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...

mountains, right through to the epilogue. Crime fiction expert and author

Barry Forshaw Barry Forshaw is a writer, broadcaster and journalist whose books include '' British Crime Writing: An Encyclopedia'', '' The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction'', '' Brit Noir'', '' British Gothic Cinema'', ''Nordic Noir'', '' Sex and Film'', '' Euro N ...

said that while the story has echoes of

Tom Rob Smith Tom Rob Smith (born February 19, 1979) is an English author, screenwriter and producer. Personal life and education The son of Swedish mother Barbro and English father Ron, both antiques dealers, Smith was born and raised at Norbury, South Lo ...

and

Philip Kerr Philip Ballantyne Kerr (22 February 1956 – 23 March 2018) was a British author, best known for his Bernie Gunther series of historical detective thrillers. Early life Kerr was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, where his father was an enginee ...

, ‘Young has a notably individual voice’. (3)

Reception

Marcel Berlins Marcel Berlins (30 October 1941 – 31 July 2019) was a French-born lawyer, legal commentator, author, broadcaster and columnist. He was best known for his work in the United Kingdom, writing for British national newspapers ''The Times'' and ''T ...

, in choosing the novel as Crime Book of the Month in

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

, said Young "provides a good story and strong characters, and is particularly successful ... in portraying the mood of East Germans at the time – fear yet pride."The Times, 13.02.16, Saturday Review, p18, http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/fiction/article4687526.ece

References

{{reflist, 30em British thriller novels 2016 British novels Novels set in Germany Novels set in Berlin Novels set in the 1970s