The writing [is] cogent, angry, stylish and informed. Porter is an expert literary historian, intrigued by his own times. His take on post-war Germany is sober, truthful, anxious and well remembered... Porter's scene-setting is painful and all prevailing. Perhaps it's wimpish to complain, but it could be that he's done the job a touch too well. -- Philip Oakes LITERARY REVIEW, June 2005 A first-rate thriller... Porter sustains an elaborate plot skilfully and portrays memorable, multi-faceted characters. But his achievement lies in producing a remarkably comprehensive counterpart in fiction to Anna Funder's nonfiction study Stasiland, recreating the paranoid, Kafkaesque state. This gives Brandenburg a richness of texture... and exhilaratingly testifies to the thiller genre's ability to transcend its primary role as entertainment. -- John Dugdale THE SUNDAY TIMES This is Porter's fourth novel, set in those beautifully dark and intriguing days of the Cold War, and is by far his best. Rudi is a brilliantly drawn character, both complex and sympathetic... [Porter] is proving himself more than a match for John Le Carre. Thankfully the spy novel lives on. -- Henry Sutton DAILY MIRROR, 17 June Henry Porter is seriously rewarding... a stunning evocation of the Cold War at its nastiest. TATLER, July issue A first-rate thriller... Porter sustains an elaborate plot skilfully and portrays memorable, multi-faceted characters. But his achievement lies in producing a remarkably comprehensive counterpart in fiction to Anna Funder's nonfiction study Stasiland, recreating the paranoid, Kafkaesque state. This gives Brandenburg a richness of texture... and exhilaratingly testifies to the thiller genre's ability to transcend its primary role as entertainment. -- John Dugdale THE SUNDAY TIMES, 19 June An accomplished retro-thriller... warmly recommended. Henry Porter has fast become one of the masters of the genre. Like all the best thriller writers, Porter does sex far better than he does violence. -- David Robson THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, 3 July Another elegant spy thriller... not merely a tale of intrigue and deception, betrayal and retribution, but also an examination of the people who live through these experiences. Love does not flourish easily in this kind of environment, and it is a tribute to Porter's skills as a writer that the realtionship remains real, and viable. There are some moments of intense and harrowing anxiety, as well as a few marvellous pieces of direct action... also an exquisite, almost hidden, sub-plot. -- Matthew Lewin THE GUARDIAN, 9 July Porter handles this convoluted plot with considerable skill, driving the narrative at a cracking pace. Rosenharte comes alive on the page. Ulrike is equally well-drawn. A real page-turner... a thriller of high ambition. -- Philip Jacobson DAILY MAIL, 8 July [There is a] unity and a strength of purpose to this solidly researched thriller. NEW STATESMAN, 23 July I got hooked on Brandenburg. -- Daniel Johnson THE EVENING STANDARD, 20 June Another stunning piece of fiction in the finest tradition of Le Carre. His attention to detail is acute, his characters utterly believable. [A] beautifully-crafted, slow-burning tale... Brilliant. THE HERALD (Glasgow), 23 July Filled with suspense and shady characters. PETERBOROUGH EVENING TELEGRAPH, 23 July His last novel was a mastercless in multiple identity, but also skilfully written. Brandenburg has the same quality. It doesn't pester you with its research, nor offer you indigestible chunks of political history. Instead it provides somthing to bite on and plenty of space to chew it. Porter enjoys himself enough to carry the reader with him. On the way, he continues to breathe new life into spy fiction. THE INDEPENDENT, 27 July A fascinatingly complex story of intrigue and adventure. YORKSHIRE EVENING POST, 6 August Intensely compelling... REVIEWINGTHEEVIDENCE.COM, August Another page-turner by a modern master of the genre. DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Ultratravel' section, 3 September A minutely reconstructed evocation of the cold war at its nastiest, and a salutary reminder of what it was all about. ECONOMIST, 10 December
