Tension, drama and setting. This has it all.
♫ ♫ ♫
An extremely well written
piece that intrigued me from the beginning to its end. To me it had a touch of Robert Ludlum and John Grisham . . .
♫ ♫ ♫
Cheers for a smashing read.
♫ ♫ ♫
[I]t held my attention throughout
and I enjoyed it very much. You are obviously an accomplished writer and this reads as well as any published work. The characters
were interesting, consistent and believable, the settings were conveyed effectively and the narrative voice was compelling.
Use of language was excellent . . . All in all, an extremely impressive piece.
♫ ♫ ♫
In the very first paragraph
I began to feel I knew Sylvia; I'd probably recognise her if I saw her in the street.
♫ ♫ ♫
I think you have a good international
espionage tale going here. The plot seems well thought out, the characters are interesting and plausible, and the settings
are very nicely written.
♫ ♫ ♫
Excellent story. I was
captivated within the first few paragraphs.
♫ ♫ ♫
And here is the professional
review:
Random House Readers' Group Feedback on The Stasi File
This historic
novel introduced me to a topic I was surprisingly unfamiliar with. The history of the Red Army Faction is an uncommon background
to a story. Cleanly woven into the fall of the Berlin wall and the start of Germany’s new future, I found it rich and engaging, even in only the first few chapters of the
story.
All three starting
points, in East Germany, West Germany and in the US, offer the reader a huge amount of detail to start the plot off. I am often wary of such approach as too much detail
up front can often lead to reader overload, or at the least a sense of the author handing everything on a plate. But in this
case it walks the line between them very carefully.
There are two scenes
that particularly drew my attention. The first, with Sylvia in the Park, and the second with Rolf going to visit the senior
partner.
Sylvia’s attack
in the park comes completely out of the blue. I was just taking in the details of the previous paragraphs and starting to
place where and when the story is set, when the assault by the RAF member started. While the section only lasts a few paragraphs
I could feel my heart racing at the sudden change of pace. This is a good technique to engage the reader. This then set my
interest at a higher level for the rest of the piece.
One suggestion here
might be to lighten slightly the details before the attack. Not by much as it was all well written. It would just ensure that
a browsing reader could be engaged slightly quicker.
The second scene was
Rolf's. Here the first sentence changes the scene well, while skilfully keeping a semblance of pace from the Park scene. It
also manages to quickly capture the essence of Rolf’s outlook. A view which is expanded upon as we are introduced to
Mr Stein. The following exchange would be worthy of any great court room drama and quickly reveals the real Rolf.
The third scene with
Dobnik, while less enjoyable for me than the first two, is equally well handled. It has a distinctly darker theme and highlights
the different shades with which the author paints the scenes. Using this colouring to hint at three different worlds that
would eventually collide as the story progresses.
I think this
is a Stirling
effort that I enjoyed reading. With a small amount of effort to engage the reader as soon as possible, this could be even
better! Congratulations to the Author for getting to the Top Ten, a worthy achievement
indeed! 
