Winter Work is a brilliant addition to Dan Fesperman's magnificent oeuvre about a society turned upside down. The Berlin Wall has just fallen but following the murder of a colleague and friend, disillusioned Stasi veteran Emil Grimm finds that escaping his life in East Germany is still a risky undertaking.
In the chaos following the historic event, intelligence apparently is up for grabs, pitting Russians against Americans against Germans for the names of thousands of agents in the field.
Emil lives in a dacha in the woods north of Berlin with his bedridden wife, Bettina, who has amyptrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and her caretaker, Karola, who, with the tacit approval of Bettina, has become a second wife to Emil.
Among their neighbours is Emil’s former boss, renowned spymaster Markus Wolf. After the murder of Lothar Fischer, a friend and co-conspirator who also lives nearby, Emil decides to act on his own to seek out the Americans.
Meanwhile, CIA agent Claire Saylor has just received a new assignment - she will be the designated contact for a high-ranking Stasi intelligence officer. When her first rendezvous with the Stasi officer concerned (Lothar), is unsuccessful, she realises the mission is far more delicate and dangerous than she was led to believe initially.
Emil then reaches out to Claire, who has been originally dispatched to East Germany in hopes of learning the identity of a mole at Langley. Emil promises to swap her crucial information in return for her getting himself, Bettina, and Karola - who proves to be a great partner in surprising other ways - to freedom.
In a kind of woodland mystery, Claire becomes increasingly invested in Emil’s cause. Until the thrilling climax, what’s at stake - what the pitched strategic battles are about - is treated almost as an afterthought. It's the gamesmanship that matters most to the players concerned.
With the rules of the game changing fast, Emil and Claire soon find themselves on unlikely common ground, fighting for their lives against a powerful enemy hiding in the shadows.
Emil's secret meetings with Wolf have the colour and mystic of a much finer wine than the one they’re drinking one morning at Lothar's dacha that both have broken in to search for the secret document that got Lothar killed. Also there is a local cop who bonds with Emil even as he realises he is being played by the spymaster. And a recently retired spy named Clark Baucom comes to Claire's aid and rescue ala James Bond during crucial moments.
Winter Work is an engrossing, deep-in-the-weeds thriller that gets to you the more you proceed into the story. Another intriguing work by Fesperman.
