At the height of the Cold War, two Americans are runnng a bar in the West German capital, called Mac’s place. One of the pair, Michael Padillo, isn’t around a lot; he keeps disappearing on “business trips.” McCorkle, his partner, wisely doesn’t ask questions; he knows Padillo has a second job — he’s a (reluctant) US agent. But McCorkle is ready to answer a call for help from Padillo, and he … joins his friend in a blind journey with no inkling of what they will encounter at the turn of each dark and dangerous corner.
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The setup’s familiar: hard men, a bar, partners who keep secrets from each other, moral ambiguity, double- and triple-crosses, fedoras, cigarette smoke, shadows. Only this time around, we’re not in prewar San Francisco or postwar L.A.; we’re in Germany, the concrete’s still setting on the Wall, and the hard men are spooks, not shamuses and …