The German Club by Patrick Oster

If you ask people why the Berlin Wall came down so unexpectedly, those who remember those days might tell you it was because of President Ronald Reagan’s famous “tear down this wall” speech. Many forget that address took place more than two years before Germans put sledgehammers and pick axes to the cement barrier as the beginning act of their reunification. Now, after a quarter of a century has passed, a story has begun to circulate about what really happened. It’s a tale of a mysterious group with ties in many countries, a billionaire industrialist, the CIA, Stasi thugs, goosestepping East German soldiers, a Nazi general, massive disinformation — and murder. In the middle of the story is a Chicago homicide detective who gets tossed into those whirlwind times and becomes key to them all.

“Oster’s story is full of double agents and hidden agendas, which he ably ties into the days leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. He provides enough historical context for readers with only a cursory understanding of Cold War politics that they should be able to follow the plot’s various twists. Oster unravels the mystery with a steady, straightforward delivery befitting its protagonist(who) pushes and punches his way through the novel, which never strays from the action.”

“A solid, worthwhile espionage thriller.”
–Kirkus Review

THEN GERMAN CLUB is available from Amazon.

 *****

“Oster had crafted a truly enjoyable thriller. Its straightforward prose and constant action make for a rewarding book, and Oster has managed to keep the temperature rising the longer the book goes on.”
–William O’Connor, TheDailyBeast.com

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Patrick Oster is a managing editor at Bloomberg News and has worked for Business Week in Europe, Knight Ridder in Mexico and covered the White House, State Department and the CIA as Washington Bureau Chief of The Chicago Sun-Times. He is the author of the nonfiction book, “The Mexicans,” a Book-of-the-Month selection. His comic thriller “The Commuter” was published by the Argo Navis imprint of Perseus Books. His new spy thriller “The German Club” is just out. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers. His website has information on books in progress. www.patrickoster.com