The true stories behind Lines of Deception
The true stories behind Lines of Deception
Read about the real people, events and locations in the new novel, plus book news
In my novel Lines of Deception, West German nightclub owner Max Kaspar ventures behind the Iron Curtain on a desperate mission to save his brother. Set in 1949, my Cold War tales sends Max to Vienna and Prague, across Czechoslovakia and Soviet East Germany, into Communist Poland, and beyond to other hard places I can’t reveal. Along the way, dangerous operators from Max and Harry’s past join the pursuit — Harry’s former lover Katarina, who’s working for the Israelis, and former Nazi Hartmut Dietz, now an agent of East German intelligence. And Harry, Max finds out, is attempting to rescue an American scientist, Stanley Samaras.
It’s all fiction, a thriller full of gambits and a wild ride with atmosphere. Like in my other novels, though, some persons and events are based on the real thing. Beware of a couple vague spoiler alerts below! Though they won’t wreck any surprises.
CIA missteps in the early Cold War
The new Central Intelligence Agency, only just created from the National Security Act of 1947, was at first a small organization with a poor track record. CIA efforts to place intelligence networks behind the Iron Curtain failed miserably from Yugoslavia to Latvia, its agents usually discovered immediately. In my story, Harry worries about missions constantly failing and lives lost, which in turn fuels Harry’s decision to go rogue behind the Iron Curtain.
Rogue scientists, horrific weapons
Harry’s target, the fictional scientist Stanley Samaras, is based on a variety of scientists who were voicing doubts about the rapid advancement of modern weaponry through science. Real-life examples include:
Influential yet pro-Soviet American bacteriologist Theodor Rosebury, whose revealing journal articles likely prompted the Soviets to increase their germ warfare efforts
US atomic researcher George Koval, who was born in the US to Russian immigrants but, after spying for the Soviet atomic bomb project, left on a European vacation in 1948 and fled to the Soviet Union
American biological warfare expert Frank Olson, who leapt to his death from a Manhattan hotel in 1953 under suspicious circumstances after sharing with colleagues his deep concerns about their germ warfare projects.
In the early Cold War, the US biological weapons program was centered around Camp Detrick in Maryland. The Soviets had their own research centers and facilities, but most are believed to have resided deep inside the Soviet Union itself — the one I place in Soviet Poland is purely fictional, to keep Stanley Samaras within reach of Harry. The specter of such weaponry, while banned by treaties, remains as horrific as ever.
A Greek enclave in Poland
Max and Harry and crew are surprised to find a vibrant Greek community in the middle of SW Poland. But Soviets actually did resettle Communist Greek refugees from the Greek Civil war in Zgorzelec, along the new postwar border of East Germany. Many of these Greeks later returned to their homeland or were deported, but the vestiges and descendants of those Greek refugees live on in Poland today.
Real-life agencies and orgs
The fledgling East German intelligence agencies Hartmut Dietz worked for, such as K5, did exist at the time, small and limited in scope, strictly controlled by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany. The notorious East German Stasi that we know today had its roots in this period but was not formed until 1953, after a series of purges of the type that would spook a questionable operator like Dietz to take drastic measures. Another real-life organization in my story was the VVN, or Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes — the Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime, which Katarina uses as her cover.
Jews seeking revenge on Nazis
The Jewish Avengers were an actual group, also known as Nakam or Gmul. They started in secret, inside a British unit called the Jewish Brigade right after the war, their British cover allowing them to hunt and assassinate known Nazi war criminals. After the immediate postwar period, however, such groups returned home to participate in the founding of the State of Israel and the wars to come. The notion of the Israelis using a gentile assassin to operate unnoticed seemed the perfect mission for Katarina given her background and need to atone for her native Germany.
Ratlines
The so-called “ratlines” existed as well. They helped Nazi fugitives escape to South America and elsewhere, often passing through fascist Spain or the Vatican with the help of sympathetic Catholics. Sadly, the Americans eventually got involved. It all came down to another of those lethal and sometimes shameful competitions created by the Cold War: US intelligence, as part of Operation Paperclip, used the nefarious escape routes to bring over important Nazi scientists and military experts before the Soviets snatched them up. My specific route behind the Iron Curtain is fictional as far as I know.
You’ll find many more true references, details and events in Lines of Deception. The locations are real too, and I’ve been to most — some even right before the Iron Curtain started to crumble. You can read more about that in my post previous post, “Venturing behind the Iron Curtain in 1990.”
More about Lines of Deception
Here’s an interview I did on the syndicated Joy on Paper radio show last month when Lines of Deception released. You can find more interviews here.
Lines of Deception is available wherever books are sold, from big retailers to your local bookstore. Here are just a few options:
Amazon (ebook and print)
Apple Books (ebook)
Barnes & Noble (ebook and print)
Bookshop (print, also via your local bookstore)
Google Play (ebook)
Kobo (ebook)
If you like the novel, or any of my stories, please consider posting a review or rating. Every single positive review on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble and other review-based sites helps a ton.
News about the other books
My publisher has dropped the ebook price for my WWII thriller Under False Flags to only 99 cents. That’s a steal for an ebook that can run up to 12 bucks. The deal’s currently for Amazon Kindle and Google Play Books. Go grab it!
My next novel is coming July 2, and I couldn’t be more excited. As a psychological/crime thriller set in current times, Show Game is a new direction for me. And I’m happy to report that endorsements are starting to come in. Jahmal Mayfield, author of the amazing novel Smoke Kings, says:
“Show Game is not only a high-octane thriller, it’s an urgent and timely reckoning for the sins of the past. A thriller crackling with heart and soul.”
I loved that so much, we put it right on the cover.
Show Game is available for pre-order now through all the stores, including your local bookstore. Stay tuned for more once we get closer to publication.
Thanks for reading! I hope you’re all doing well.
Steve- Thanks for sharing this. I could only imagine what biological warfare would look like during both the World Wars. I suppose the reaction would be close to one example you described: "American biological warfare expert Frank Olson, who leapt to his death from a Manhattan hotel in 1953 under suspicious circumstances after sharing with colleagues his deep concerns about their germ warfare projects."