David Downing


David Downing is a contemporary British author of mystery novels and nonfiction. His works have been reviewed by Publishers Weekly, the New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He is known for his "convincing" depiction of World War II and Berlin, probably due to his studies and familiarity with the subject. He has written a series of espionage thrillers, based around Anglo-American character John Russell exploring Germany in the 1940s. They are known as "The Station Series" because they are all named after train stations, mostly in Berlin. It concluded in June 2013 after six novels with Masaryk Station.
Jack of Spies, the first novel in a new series set before, during and after World War I, was published in September 2013.
His contributions to the studies of World War II history have appeared in both historical nonfiction and fictional thrillers. His studies mainly examine the events that decided "the fate of Germany and Japan" toward the end of the war. He wrote a counterfactual history of the Second World War, The Moscow Option. He has also been known to write under the pseudonym David Monnery and also wrote An Atlas of Territorial and Border Disputes.
In the 1970s, Downing contributed to the music magazine Let It Rock and published a study of utopian and science fiction explorations of the future in music, Future Rock, analysing the work of Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Pink Floyd and others.

Publications

John Russell series