Then We Take Berlin, Lawton - B

                                          This is a really fun novel, set in Berlin, that opens and closes on the day of JFK's "Ich Bin Ein Berliner' speech in June, 1963. I was not aware that the speech was on the 15th anniversary of the Airlift and that the Soviets shrouded the Brandenburg Gate in red.  Joe Holderness, retired from the R.A.F. Intelligence section, is hired by a former (maybe?) C.I.A. colleague to get someone out of East Berlin.  It's necessary to use contacts and information Joe developed during his post-war years as a leader of Berlin's black market. Joe's background in wartime London, as the grandson and trainee of a second-story man is enlightening, as is the story of his girlfriend's surviving in 1945 Berlin. Their stories are a lead into a detailed study of the black market, fueled by American goods and partaken in by the Germans, British, and Russians. The author has done some serious research, provides a detailed bibliography and, most interestingly, has a six book series that I think I'll look into.