“Abandoned in Berlin” invites the reader to decide if anti-Semitism in Germany ended after the war or was simply concealed by a new set of West German laws. The story uncovers the history of a prestigious block of Jewish-owned apartments in West Berlin, expropriated under National Socialism at the end of March 1936. The leading characters are a widow and her two teenage daughters, with the story narrated in the third person by Hilda, the only child of the youngest daughter, who currently lives in Novato, northern California. Uncovering the family history begins during June 2016 when Hilda visits Berlin to discover the home where her mother lived as a child and teenager. Through diligent research and the help of people and organizations in Berlin, Britain, the United States, and Israel, a story of persecution, discrimination, courage, and survival emerges. Important events are exposed that begin in December 1929 when the father of the family dies suddenly of natural causes, and leaves his wife to bring up the two adolescent daughters and manage the apartment business in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district of Berlin. The youngest girl legally inherits a share of the property, but because she is under age-21 and has no father, she is placed under the “care” of a Nazi Guardianship Court during late 1933. As a consequence, the Court controls all financial matters affecting the property. Slowly its requirements squeeze Hilda’s family out of their home and rental business, and then out of Germany. Not until during the early 1950’s can the survivors pursue restitution under newly-created West German jurisprudence. What happens at this time is described in “Abandoned in Berlin”.

An innovative exploration of German memory, national identity, and modernity embodied in the public spaces of the new capital.

JOHN is brought up on an isolated farm near York, spends his spare time birdwatching, lives with an unsympathetic stepfather and loving mother, and attends Hull University as the government pays his expenses. He worries about serious relationships with girls and has no idea of what career to follow. His experience so far is as a farm hand and a hospital porter. A letter he finds at home confirms his biological father is alive but has no intention of helping him. On Bonfire Night 1965 (Guy Fawkes Night), during his final undergraduate year, he meets a fellow student, JEAN-LOUISE, and a romantic relationship develops. In many ways she is different from John; she is a town girl, brought up by loving parents, is an only child, has opposing politics and knows what she wants to be – a fashion buyer for Marks & Spencer. The obstacle is her mother is ill with muscular dystrophy and she must help take care of her parents. She surprises John by encouraging his birdwatching. John joins Ford of Britain as a graduate trainee and after an uncertain start, is placed in industrial relations and decides to study for a graduate degree with the Institute of Personnel Management. He also discovers more about his real father. What happens to the couple during the subsequent 10 years as they navigate their careers, have to deal with events that take place in Britain during the period and manage personal issues at home, are the subjects of this book. There is panic buying during the 1974, 3-day working week, the affects on home life of Britain's entry into the Common Market, annual inflation driven above 25 percent in part because of trade union militancy, and many other national incidents. A unique feature of the novel is the use of bird species to illustrate human behavior and character. At the end of each chapter there is an illustration of the featured bird from that chapter to provide a summary of the bird's appearance and habitat in case the reader is interested. The novel blends British history, ornithology, success at work, discrimination against women and the challenges of home life into a single story.

The next book in the acclaimed Cormack and Woodward series, set during the Berlin Blockade of 1948, which has sometimes been described as the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 1940s, where a highly volatile situation could easily have developed into a full-blown conflict. Cormack arrives in Berlin to take over a new post as the head of a counter-intelligence unit whose job is both to detect Soviet agents and to deal with Black Market activity. He is soon re-united with his old friend Woodward, who is involved in the Airlift, and the two find themselves in the middle of an undercover operation in which an ex-Nazi assassin has been smuggled into Berlin. But who has he been sent to kill, and why? Their investigations lead them into discovering the shadowy outlines of a conspiracy whose plans, if successful, could lead to millions of deaths… and some of the conspirators seem to be their own superiors. Not knowing whom they can trust, Cormack and Woodward somehow have to prevent the assassination taking place. They do not even know who the victim is to be, nor where or when it is to happen, but the price of failure is World War Three…

Vasily Zarubin ranked as an important Soviet intelligence officer, but he has received little recognition in the history of intelligence in the United States. In Rezident, author Robert K. Baker, who worked with foreign counterintelligence matters for the FBI during a thirty-three-year career, presents the first English language biography of Zarubin, Stalins principal intelligence officer in this country during World War II. Rezident recounts the exploits of Zarubins work with Soviet intelligence during the twentieth century narrating how his odyssey extended from the Soviet Far East during the early years of Soviet Russia to deep cover assignments with his wife, Elizaveta, in France, Nazi Germany, and the United States. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Stalin appointed Zarubin as his intelligence emissary to the United States to gather political, military, and technological information. Zarubin was successful in providing valuable information to the Soviet Union during the war years. This biography of Zarubins life and times provides a greater appreciation and understanding of the role of the security and intelligence services in the sphere of national security.