A Cold War thriller written by a former regional daily journalist has been published in paperback.

David Young, formerly of the South Wales Argus, has seen his debut novel Stasi Child, set in 1970s East Germany, become reality.

David, left, worked for the Argus in the 1980s and also spent time with a London news agency, before more recently undertaking a master’s degree in creative writing at City University.

Stasi Child initially started out as a chapter for part of his degree, and the project was awarded thee Peter, Fraser and Dunlop City University crime writing prize in 2014.

The novel follows a member of the East German People’s Police called to investigate a teenage girl’s body found riddled with bullets at the foot of the Berlin Wall.

When she arrives, she realises this is a death like no other as it seems the girl was trying to escape from the West. But the evidence doesn’t add up, and it soon becomes clear that the crime scene has been staged.

David’s interest in Cold War Germany was sparked when researching for his university thesis but developed further after he read Anna Funder’s Stasiland.

He researched every aspect of the Berlin wall and the hardships it caused before writing his novel, including police interviews arranged by the Berlin Police Presidency and interviews with former East Germany detectives.

The book is now available on paperback, published by Bonnier Publishing.