The City in Year Zero: The gripping WW2 crime thriller
By (Author) Michael Russell
Little, Brown Book Group
Constable
11th November 2025
7th August 2025
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Paperback
320
Width 153mm, Height 234mm, Spine 22mm
Nothing thrived here, but something grew...
Germany, 1945. Year Zero. The war is at an end. When Ireland's ambassador to the Third Reich finally leaves the war-torn country, Garda detective Stefan Gillespie makes his way home under the watchful eye of British Intelligence, who are searching for some of the Irish citizens Ireland doesn't want back. The usual dirty business. But suddenly Stefan is drawn into a murder inquiry. Unexpectedly arriving in a town he knew in his youth, on visits to his German relatives, Stefan feels compelled to help his cousin Annaliese and her hostile daughter Krista. Maybe it's nostalgia for first love, or for a time of peace, or maybe he just wants to do something that feels clean. But the past is a dangerous place to return to...A darkness still hangs over Germany, and Stefan Gillespie is walking right into it.----------Praise for Michael Russell:'Complex but compelling . . . utterly vivid and convincing' - Independent on Sunday'A superb, atmospheric thriller' - Irish Independent'A thriller to keep you guessing and gasping' - Daily Mail'Atmospheric' - Sunday TimesThe City in Year Zero is the tenth and last of his Stefan Gillespie stories of historical crime fiction, taking a sideways look at the Second World War through Irish eyes, and exploring some unexpected corners of the conflict, such as Danzig, New York, the Vatican City and in this final novel, Berlin.
Michael lives with his family in West Wicklow, in Ireland, not a million miles from Stefan Gillespie's home.