Stasi Wolf

March 18, 2019
Young’s edgy sequel to 2017’s Stasi Child, likewise set in East Germany in 1975, takes recently divorced, professionally marginalized Karin Müller of the People’s Police from East Berlin to Halle-Neustadt, a new town intended to showcase the socialist dream, to look into the disappearance of newborn twins. Karin’s inquiry is handicapped by male reluctance to accept a woman boss; the ominous Ministry of State Security (aka the Stasi), whose leaders want to hush up the whole affair; and her personal insecurities. After one baby is found dead, the case seems deadlocked. As more tiny skeletons are unearthed, flashbacks to the 1960s chart the perpetrator’s gradual derangement. A new love interest for Karin and her search for her biological family provide some relief from the dismal portrayal of East Germany’s repressive society. Only the gruesome finale rings false. Fans of mysteries with Cold War settings will appreciate Young’s dead-on recreation of life under Communist rule. Agent: Adam Gauntlett, Peters, Fraser & Dunlop (U.K.).