June 53 (vol. V)

Max Heller remains true to himself – but the gap that is dividing the country also starts to fragment his own family

Summer 1953: Daily life in the new German Democratic Republic (GDR) is becoming difficult. The ongoing shortages of everything continue. The population’s dissatisfaction grows, and the number of those fleeing the country increases continuously. The government of the Socialist Union Party harshly imposes its demands and mercilessly hunts down its opponents. Even Max and Karin Heller consider fleeing to the West. On June 17, the political situation escalates as large-scale protest movements grow everywhere. This is the point at which Detective Inspector Heller is called to a Dresden insulation factory: Its director and former owner has been brutally murdered. Is he a victim of the rebels? Heller’s suspicions run along other lines. In the midst of the people’s revolt, he searches for an unpredictable murderer. At the same time, Karin demands that he takes a decision: run or stay?

  • Frank Goldammer’s books span the time period from the last days of the World War II to the construction of the Berlin Wall – pure tension, compelling and vibrantly narrated
  • Trust fans of Tom Tykwer’s ‘Babylon Berlin’ to pick up Frank Goldammer’s books
Rights sold: Denmark, Italy
Genre: Fiction, Crime / Thriller / Suspense, Historical Fiction
384 pages, ISBN: 978-3-423-21940-2
Product features: First published in 2019
First published 2021