All The Write Stuff: The Devil’s Spies

The devil has eyes and ears everywhere!

The Devil’s Spies

by K.C. Sivils

Genre: Historical Fiction

Needing to stop the flood of humanity fleeing communist oppression by making it to the divided city of Berlin, the communist government of East Germany took drastic measures. In August of 1961, construction of the Berlin Wall began.

Two young lovers, an American refugee worker, and an East German seminary student, find themselves separated by the wall. Desperate to be reunited and build a life together, Angela Wettin and Michael Dieterich, with Michael’s brother Joseph, set in motion a dangerous plan to escape by tunneling under the Berlin Wall.

Determined to stop any hope of gaining freedom, the East German Stasi, the dreaded secret police of the communist state, formed Department XX/4 to infiltrate and spy on the Church in East Germany.

Faced with betrayal, dangerous cave-ins, and family conflict, the trio enters a life-and-death race against the Stasi and Department XX/4.

Can they gain their freedom before they are caught by the Devil’s Spies from the Stasi?

Guest Post

A bit about me:

My wife Lisa and I will have been married 40 years July 28, 2024. We have three adult children and seven grandchildren. I played college basketball at Greenville University where I met Lisa. We currently have two dogs, Bella – AKA The Princess of Mischief – a Golden Retriever, and a grumpy little old man, Mr. Darcy – a black miniature poodle.

I was a fourth generation school teacher. My youngest daughter, Emily is also a school teacher.

I have traveled to 47 of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. My travels have taken me to twelve nations as well and three continents. I have ridden trains in six of those twelve nations and twenty-four states.

What is something unique/quirky about you?

To my wife Lisa’s great frustration, I run hot or cold. If it is something that matters to me, I am passionate about it and will take action to make it happen. If I see no purpose in something or have no interest in hit, setting a nuclear bomb off beneath me will NOT get me to do anything about it. There is very little middle ground.

Tell us something really interesting that's happened to you!

I spent three days with John Wooden, one of my coaching heroes. He was an amazing individual. Wooden was someone you had to experience in person to understand his charisma and unique personality.

What are some of your pet peeves?

People who take advantage of others. This particularly applies to people who think they are better than others and this gives them the right to treat poorly those they view as less than them.

Politicians/leaders of any kind, who use their position of leadership to enrich themselves at the expense of others. I’m not talking about people who own businesses. I’m talking about people who create nothing and provide no service that is of value but instead live as parasites on the efforts and ideas of the real economic producers.

Lack of justice in the criminal court system. It makes my blood boil to watch people who are guilty but privileged get away with their misdeeds because they can work the judicial system politically.

In general, people knowingly and blatantly breaking rules/laws/regulations and getting away with it. The bigger the rule breaker, the more it chaps my hide. (This might explain Sully’s willingness to slap certain individuals around in order to extract information during an investigation. It also probably has something to do with his ideas regarding the legal system and justice and his general disdain for politicians and the so-called elite.) Needless to say, I have to be very careful about the Biblical admonition about trying to remove the speck in my brother’s eye while ignoring the log in my own.

Where were you born/grew up at?

I was born in Jacksonville, Florida, but grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where, with the exception of four years of college at Greenville University in Illinois, I spent the bulk of my life until moving to Texas in 2003.

Who is your hero and why?

My grandfather. He was so wise and the very definition of what a gentleman should be. He was patient but firm, compassionate and kind, but knew when to use the rod and not spoil the grandchild. He was genuinely interested in everything, especially people. He taught me everyone has a story, regardless of their station in life, and that story is interesting. I guess it was the newspaper man in him.

He was humble despite being brilliant. He could speak and read five languages fluently and get by reading a couple more. He was a WW II veteran but never spoke of his experiences directly. He had a way of talking to people, well, more likely listening to people, that put them at ease. It mattered not at all who the person was.

He was the author of books, taught adult Sunday School, and traveled extensively with my grandmother, often taking me along. He shared his passion for all things railroad related with me, taught me to be interested in things, and insisted I treat others with respect.

Best of all, he was a great storyteller and could explain complicated ideas in such a way that even a pesky little kid could understand them.

What kind of world ruler would you be?

I shudder at the thought. I know better than to think I would be a benign ruler who exercised power for the benefit of those I ruled. At this stage of my life, I know when to ignore people who disagree with me or criticize me, most of the time. When I was younger, that wasn’t true. Like most despots, I have little doubt I would have wielded the heavy hand of power against those individuals.

What are you passionate about these days?

Anything related to trains during the steam era. Trying to become successful as an author. Successful by my definition of success.

Oh, and dogs.

It seems I like dogs better than I do most people.

What do you do to unwind and relax?

I love to read. Fiction, really good fiction, can take me to a faraway place or let me become one of the characters and participate in the story.

I have a really wide range of interests. Reading is a cheap way for me to engage those interests and learn more about them.

How did I find time to write as a parent?

I gave up television. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Which of your novels can you imagine made into a movie?

The Devil’s Spies

The Predator and The Prey

The Price of a Lie

Murder on the Harz Mountain Railway

A Matter of Vengeance

Of course, they should all be made into movies! J

What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?

It wasn’t a literary pilgrimage, but it was extraordinarily helpful. As a history teacher, I taught two elective courses that were popular, History of WW II and History of the Cold War. Every four years I took students to do a tour of WW II and Cold War sites in Western Europe. Visiting Berlin, riding the Harz Mountain Railway, the Sachsenhausen Concentration camp, etc, allowed me to visualize my historical fiction in ways that allowed me to craft a better story.

Having visited some of the so-called great cities of the world, I can conjure up images of cities and people based on places I have been. Some big cities I like, London and Berlin for example. Then there are the cities I don’t like such as New York City and Paris. My favorite collections of people living in community are the village of Bastogne in Belgium, Durango, Colorado, and just about any village in Wales but Porthmadog and Caernarfon in particular are great places. I have also ridden trains all over the United States and the world and they are a great source of ideas and characters as well.

EXCERPT

Excerpt:

"It's after two in the afternoon," Angela complained to the nearby soldier. The GI studiously ignored Angela. He'd learned the hard way to ignore pretty girls when on duty. Hating the fact time moved so slowly, Angela decided the best course of action was to get a cup of tea before making her crossing into East Berlin. She'd expected to at least see Michael on the other side of the checkpoint, and if not Michael, then her fiancée's partner in crime, Werner.

Shouting, followed by the sound of gunfire, jarred Angela out of her pique. A hundred or so yards from Check Point Charlie, a young man appeared at the top of the wall, caught in the wire. Spellbound, Angela watched as the man made no effort to free himself from the wire, simply rolling off the top of the wall and falling, taking several feet of barbed wire with him.

The bark of gunfire stopped, and a West Berlin police officer pulled himself up to the top of the wall and peered over, looking down. Screams from the onlookers propelled Angela forward. Sprinting towards the chaos, she could hear the cries of a man in pain, begging for help.

Another West Berlin police officer reached the wall as the first dropped down from it. They spoke, and the second officer climbed the wall and shouted to the man on the other side. Angela watched in horror as the second officer produced bandages and dropped them over the wall.

“Murderers!”

“Criminals!”

As an angry crowd gathered, Angela took notice of the escapee who had made it over the wall. He was cut and bleeding and clearly stunned by what had happened.

“You! You’re an American!”

Turning to the voice, Angela stared at the red, angry face of a young Berliner.

“Neither side will do anything to help him! Get the American soldiers!”

The sound of tear gas canisters being launched could be heard from somewhere on the other side of the wall. In seconds, tendrils of the greyish-white gas and its pungent smell began to reach across the wall.

The Berliner covered his face and pushed Angela. Shouting, “Go! Now, while there is still a chance to help him!” Angela nodded, relieved to suddenly find herself useful. She turned and ran as fast as her feet would take her to Check Point Charlie.

"Someone's been shot trying to escape," Angela panted as the Lt. in command of the detail came out to meet her. He said nothing, instead looking up in the sky at the helicopters that had suddenly appeared.

“We have our orders, Ma’am.”

“Your orders?!”

“Yes, Ma’am. We contacted General Watson for instructions.”

“Good, do something.”

“Ma’am, our orders are to stand down.”

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Book Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZBH3YNC

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-devil-s-spies-by-k-c-sivils

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210487789-the-devil-s-spies

About the Author

U.S.A. Today and Amazon Best-Selling author is the creator of the scifi crime noir series of Inspector Thomas Sullivan novels as well as the southern noir series of stories centering around the private investigator James Benoit "Heat" Heatley.

A longtime fan of crime noir and science fiction, director Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s sci-fi classic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep into the masterful Harrison Ford vehicle Bladerunner encouraged Sivils to consume as much of both genres as possible in his younger years.

A fan of past noir masters such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Sivils also enjoys the current generation of storytellers like Sandra Woffington, Tom Folwer, Jeff Edwards, Renee Pawlish, and James Scott Bell.

In addition to his aforementioned series, Sivils is also the creator of the Agent Nelson Paine Historical Mystery series set during WW II and the early years of the Cold War.

In a previous life, Sivils was a varsity basketball coach and high school history teacher. He and his wife, Lisa, have three adult children, seven grandchildren, and two four legged furry children who still live at home, Bella and Mr. Darcy.

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