Stasiland by Rolf Richardson – Book Review

PUBLISHERS BLURB 

After a messy divorce, Ed Blake is trying to forget the past by spending the summer driving around Europe in his silver Porsche. He gets no further than a small town on the river Elbe when he is arrested for a crime he did not commit. 

Although in what is now a united Germany, this is the former Communist East, once ruled by the feared secret police, the Stasi. This is Stasiland. The past has not gone away, Germany’s political tectonic plates are shifting, maybe heading for the sort of chaos last seen in the 1930s. Ed finds himself pulled into a whirlpool of violence as right-wing extremism starts to shake the foundations of Europe. 

This is a novel about the here and now. What happened to Ed Blake could happen to you.

MY REVIEW 

Set mainly in East Germany, this is the tale of Ed Blake. He’s a businessman of a certain age, and looking for a bit of a break from the rat race and see some of the world…..

But then he discovers a body on a cruise ship and become involved in the investigation….as the suspect!!

What follows is a thriller which describes the politics and dangers of a world after the Berlin Wall came down. 

I found Ed to be a likeable character, with his humour and humble manner as he describes a time of political turmoil and how a foreigner is treated with suspicion!

While not an intense thriller, there is some danger and it has a lot of details of the political atmosphere of the time and the various journeys Ed makes.  An intriguing, interesting read.

Thank you to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour and for the promotional materials and a free copy of the book. This is my honest, unbiased review.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

ROLF RICHARDSON is a mongrel English/Norwegian who loves to travel, starting with service in the RAF, flying Britain’s first jet fighter, the Meteor; thereafter 25 years as a British Airways pilot on Argonauts, Britannias, VC10s and 747s. 

He then became a roaming photographer, visiting around 110 countries, with over 15,000 photos now sold. He has worked his passage on cruise ships by giving lectures. Taken 3 months to drive round Australia. 

A few years ago he set out to put his experiences to further use by writing a series of ‘Easy Read’ books: thrillers with a dash of history, romance and humour.

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