An exceptionally fluid mystery that holds the reader gripped. Reminiscent of Fatherland and AD Miller's Snowdrops, Stasi Child heralds a bold new voice - and character - in historical crime.
NetGalley Book of the Month
Deep and dark, this debut is utterly gripping, sucking you in straight from the get go. Fascinating backdrop, well observed characters and a ... Read morecorker of an ending. Superb.
Nikki Owen (author of The Spider in the Corner of the Room) Stasi Child is great read - not just for the story itself (exciting and gripping as it is) - but also because it brings back most vividly a time that most of us have forgotten . . . David Young has researched the book extensively, and its believability shines through.
tripfiction.com
Stasi Child captures the mood of the time, place and ideology brilliantly . . . The fact that Stasi Child is a debut novel makes it all the more remarkable. I really hope Karin Muller returns, and in the not too distant future . . . a deeply atmospheric and haunting read.
For Winter Nights
David Young captures the claustrophobic atmosphere of the communist regime...filled with corruption, and violence, this gripping thriller, with an amazing ending, will have you racing through the pages.
Pick Me Up Magazine
A promising debut, an astutely considered novel of detection and place, redolent of dread, paranoia and suspicion. If you are a fan of Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series, this will appeal. Though it's stylistically more sober than Kerr's noirish novels, the Berlin background is just as authentically realised. Young demonstrates he has not only a fine heroine but a nice eye for action, claustrophobic detail and a lurking, just-under-control sense of the gothic.
Graeme Blundell
The Australian, ARTS
A self-confessed obsessive , Young's period detail - what kind of tyre tracks Stasi official's cars left - is impressive.
Greg Fleming
New Zealand Herald
The story may be basically at heart be a police procedural (and a grand read even then) but what sets its apart and much above is the most - painstakingly-researched and rendered - millieu it is set in - a society where anyone has to be cautiously watchful in all interactions - even be it family of friend and life for any moral individual is a struggle to maintain integrity when loyalty and obedience take higher precedence over truth
bignewsnetwork.com
The premise is brilliant and the pacing just right - but what really carries it is the hauntingly atmospheric depiction of Berlin under communism's iron fist
Rod Reynold
Metro
Subtle, intelligent and gripping in equal measure, Stasi Child simply oozes authenticity, vividly recreating the fear and suspicion that characterised life in the East German police state. It's a remarkable achievement and marks Young out as one of the best, up there with Martin Cruz Smith and the other greats of the field.
Abir Mukherjee, author of A Rising Man
Stasi Child is a hugely enjoyable blend of police procedural, cold war thriller and high octane action. A whip-crack of a read
Paul D Brazil
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