Crossword by Alan Bricklin
By early 1944 Hitler’s general staff realized that they had lost the war. Hitler did not. In late 1943 Allied bombers destroyed the Norwegian power station that supplied power for the factory making fissionable material for Hitler’s drive to produce an atomic weapon. The remaining material was ordered to be brought to Germany under heavy guard, but a lone German general set into motion a series of events that threatened to alter the outcome of World War II.
A troubled OSS agent is sent behind enemy lines to prevent the development of the atomic weapon that could win the war for Germany; but Hitler and the Allies are not the only ones interested. There are secret forces at work in both the United States and Germany that want the fissionable material for their own reasons.
Alone and injured in Germany, the OSS agent must enlist the aid of a beautiful, young German woman to help him while he plays cat and mouse with his enemies, both known and unknown. An undertaking gone terribly wrong. Has it turned into a suicide mission?
Targeted Age Group:: Adult
Heat/Violence Level: Heat Level 3 – PG-13
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I have had an interest in World War II since I was a teenager. An article appeared in the Los Angles Times a while back, discussing how Lake Constance (also known as the Bodensee) was frequently used as a passage for spies travelig between Swiitzerland, the lake's south shore, and Germany on the north shore. How many secret adventures began on these shores. After checking declassified douments for operaions in this area I decided to write a story based on both fictional and true events involving this reagion.
How Did You Come up With Your Characters?
To tell the story the way I wanted to there had to be both American and German characters. Each of them had to have their own flaws and their own backstory. They also had to have reasons and oportunities to interact. The main characters were created with these requirements in mind.
Book Sample
LAKE TINNSJO, NORWAY. 20 FEBRUARY, 1944
SS General Gerhard Waldman lit a cigarette, bending forward and cupping his hands against the wind, then looked up as he exhaled, staring out at the lake and the vessel moored there. The dock was lit by floodlights that cast a hard utilitarian light, illuminating numerous German soldiers, mostly in groups of two or four, carrying various sized crates onto the Norwegian ferry, Hydro. He surveyed the scene, moving his head in a panoramic sweep of the dock, and found himself surprised by the lack of noise. The bright lights washed out all color from the scene, and it was, he thought, as if he were watching a black and white newsreel clip without sound or the benefit of a narrator. Even the few civilians present stood silently in small groups awaiting permission to board the ferry, occasionally stamping their feet or blowing on their hands against the cold February chill.
The general stood just over six feet tall, with chiseled features and jet black hair, his lean, athletic build hidden by his uniform and the long leather coat he wore. His features were almost a caricature of himself, and in the eerie light he looked, at times, more like an illustration than a living human being. By most standards he was handsome, and his easy smile as well as his competence at the social banter so difficult for most military men, not to mention, of course, his bachelor status, made him a sought after bounty by many of the elite single women of the Third Reich, and some of the married ones as well. For the careful observer, however, one who watched when he stood by himself, thinking himself alone, there was to be seen a certain cruelty to his lips, a disdain that at times bordered on a sneer, and a chilling iciness to his eyes, the whole creating a visage capable of inducing fear; in short, the look of a predator.
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