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

What are your top 10 favorite books/authors?

The Bible – it has everything: history, drama, wisdom, horror stories (read Revelation during a wicked storm with the lights out), and just about anything else the human race can dream up. Then there is the role model himself, Jesus.

The Swiss Family Robinson – my favorite childhood book. I literally wore out about five or six copies.

The Maltese Falcon – my introduction to crime noir.

Exodus – Great story that mixes history with drama.

Band of Brothers – The testing of men under the worst conditions imaginable and the bonds that shared suffering builds.

The Hunger Games – Great story telling that has so much depth and history if you can find what is hidden in the story. Not to mention LOTS of conflict of every possible kind!

The Great Locomotive Chase – I love trains and this event captured my imagination as a young boy.

The Great Escape – A true story with tragic consequences that somehow managed to convey the strength of the human spirit when faced with great adversity.

Journey to the Center of the Earth – my introduction to science fiction as a youngster. This story was responsible for countless daydreams while I was bored in upper elementary school.

1984 – Terrifying story. I find the fact that much of it has come to pass to be deeply disturbing.

Lagniappe – one more just because.

Alas, Babylon – Required summer reading before my junior year in high school. Given the Cold War was raging, and Vietnam had just ended, it was a sobering read for us.

Top Ten Movies:

Where Eagles Dare – I can watch this over and over.

Terminator 2 – As far as I am concerned, this is one of the most philosophical films ever made.

The Passion of the Christ – You cannot watch this film and be unaffected.

The Maltese Falcon – My wife hates this film. I can’t watch it enough. The characters are all interesting and deeply flawed people, including Sam Spade.

Bladerunner – A source of great inspiration for me when it comes to my Sullivan stories, along with The Maltese Falcon and anything by Raymond Chandler.

Dirty Harry – A prototypical neo-noir film. It’s set in San Francisco, Callahan has his own code of justice, the villain is despicable, all of the characters are morally grey, and of course, Dirty Harry has some really cool lines!

The Green Mile – It’s just a great film that tells a thought-provoking story.

Hoosiers – Did I mention I played basketball and spent twenty-two years of my life as a varsity basketball coach? I get goosebumps just thinking about this film.

Sandlot – Great coming of age story and while I didn’t play baseball, I spent many an hour with my basketball on a court at the end of the street growing up.

All Quiet on the Western Front – any of the three versions

Lagniappe – always give something extra.

Stalingrad – horrifying account of the Battle of Stalingrad from the German perspective.

Top Ten Television Shows (In no particular order):

Firefly – Brownshirts unite! I will never forgive Fox for canceling Firefly!

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: This was a smart show as far as I was concerned. It had good stories, examined moral issues, and stuck to the original intent of the Terminator concept. It’s one flaw as far as I was concerned was the producers/writers thought Sarah Connor was the central character. Wrong, wrong, wrong on all counts. Cameron was the key character. The writers missed the boat on this one. The terminator IS the star of the three Terminator stories that matter, T-1, T-2, and TSCC. The rest are garbage. Summer Glau was magnificent in this role. She managed to convey the development of Cameron is such subtle ways. The actress was disappointed by the cancelation of the series. In the third season she was going to play Allison, the human template for Cameron while telling Cameron’s story of how she dealt with developing emotions and her attachment to John Connor. Good stuff.

New Tricks: British cop show that not only has good mysteries but is hilarious.

Star Trek: Next Generation: What can I say.

Mike Hammer: I know, it was cliché and campy, but it tried to honor the classic crime noir genre.

Magnum P.I. – One of my wife’s favorite television shows. She has a thing for Tom Selleck. I learned to appreciate the show because of the story arcs that played on the back story of the four male characters. There was a bond they all shared because of their shared suffering during military conflict. For Magnum, Rick, and T.C. it was Vietnam. For Higgins, pick the conflict Britain was involved in as its Empire died and the Cold War was waged. It was good fun too.

Rockford Files – My first car was the gold Firebird Rockford drove in the final seasons of the show. I had that car for 16 years. I also really liked the show.

Frasier – I’m not a fan of pretentious individuals like Frasier in real life but Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce where so funny as Frasier and Niles you couldn’t help but like the characters.

The X-Files – Creepy fun with a healthy dose of conspiracy theory thrown in as a bonus!

The Wonder Years – good stuff. I could relate to so much of what took place in the stories the show told.

My Ten Favorite Bands

The Rolling Stones

The Cars

Dire Straights

Blondie

The Ramones

Cheap Trick

Prince

The Commodores

Lynard Skinard

J. Geils Band

Lagniappe – one extra

The Kinks

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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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