Berlin is in the midst of its worst winter in decades. Against the backdrop of freezing temperatures, blizzards and snowstorms, the city refuses to grind to a halt. Lurking within the shadows is a Stasi victim, out for revenge against the former East German informants known as ‘The Ears’. Their dark secrets are about to be exposed. A mix of ice and water and a single gunshot, provides the ultimate payback.

With the Millennium approaching, Hanne Drais, the criminal psychologist working within the Berlin Mitte Police team led by the irascible Oskar Kruger and his laid-back sidekick, Stefan Glockner, are seeking the perpetrator of these violent crimes. Who is the man they’ve nicknamed Snowflake? Who is turning the river red?

My thanks to Fahrenheit Press for my review copy

The River Runs Red takes readers back to Berlin at a time before the wall came down and it was still a divided city.  However, the heart of the story takes place well after the collapse of the East German state. It is during this time of new-found freedom that a number of murders are committed and our lead character (Hanne Dreis) becomes involved in the resulting investigations.

Most of the early story features the story of an East German rower, training hard to make the Olympic squad for the Seoul games in 1988. His progress is closely monitored by the state police as the rower’s father had recently escaped to the West and the focus was on the remaining family to ensure they did not try to follow or to see if their father contacted them.

Suffice to say that when contact was made the Stasi swooped and two brothers were detained for interrogation.

Although I remember the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Seoul Olympics it really did not seem possible that it was just 30 years ago that Berlin had a secret police and that violent interrogations were distinctly possible behind strong prison doors.  Ally Rose captured the feel of those chilling days really effectively and I was horrified to read what happened to the two captives.

Events during that period of interrogation define the path of the lives of several characters in the book and I enjoyed reading how they coped with challenges and adversity. For one character, however, the incarceration will never be forgotten and a determination to make his captors pay for their actions will lead to bloody endings.

The River Runs Red is the third book to feature Hanne Dreis. I confess to not having read the first two and as Dreis is not featured too much in the first half of the book I wasn’t immediately aware she was the central character. (I read this book without first reading the blurb). The reason I explain this is to provide the assurance that The River Runs Red can be easily enjoyed as a stand alone thriller with no qualms needed if you have not read the first two Dreis novels.

What struck me about The River Runs Red was that this was a story where you knew who the murderer was from quite early in the tale. You understood why murders were happening and I pondered whether I wanted the killer to be caught. Nice to have a moral dilemma to consider and top marks to the author for positioning events so skillfully to ensure you do empathise with much of what occurs.

Not just a great crime story but a book which is also loaded with social history and background from a period not so far into our past but which still seems a very long time ago.

With short, snappy chapters and a well defined cast of characters there is a lot to enjoy in The River Runs Red. It also made me want to catch up on the first two novels in the collection – always a good sign.

You can order The River Runs Red here: http://www.fahrenheit-press.com/books_the_river_runs_red.html