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Author

Richard Wake

17 fiction

Richard Wake is an author of historical crime and espionage thrillers whose writing developed from a long career in newspapers and a sustained interest in twentieth-century European history. His novels combine political upheaval with fast-moving plots, following characters forced to navigate surveillance, occupation, divided loyalties and the moral compromises demanded by intelligence work.

Wake is best known for the Alex Kovacs series, which begins in pre-war Vienna and follows its protagonist through Nazi expansion, the French Resistance and the emerging Cold War. He also writes the Peter Ritter mysteries, centred on an East Berlin detective during the construction and consolidation of the Berlin Wall, and the La Rue Crime Family novels, set in the criminal underworld of 1950s Paris. His fiction is particularly suited to readers interested in the Second World War, post-war Europe, espionage and life under authoritarian regimes.

Periods and events

Appeasement and the Road to War1933–1939 CE Berlin Wall and Divided Berlin1961–1989 CE Cold War and Post-war Era1945–present D-Day and Normandy Campaign1944 CE French Resistance1940–1944 CE German Occupation of France1940–1944 Holocaust1933–1945 CE Nazi Germany1933–1945 Postwar Nazi Hunting1945–1970 CE Rise of Nazism1919–1933 CE

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by Richard Wake (2 series)

Peter Ritter Thriller in Order

by Richard Wake 2 books 4.4(4,655)

The Peter Ritter series follows a young detective in the East Berlin murder squad during the crisis that culminates in the Berlin Wall. Ritter benefits from political connections within the ruling system but remains committed to evidence and individual truth, even when a case threatens the authority of…

Alex Kovacs Thriller in Order

by Richard Wake 15 books 4.3(60,123)

The Alex Kovacs series follows a Czech-born Viennese businessman who is drawn into espionage during the destruction of interwar Europe. Books one and two place him against the rise of Nazism and the approach of war; books three to seven follow his work in the French Resistance from…

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