by Dan Simmons
—Dallas Morning News
“A literary thriller that is sure to win Simmons another batch of readers and place him on the short list for more awards…. A remarkable blend of fact and fiction… filled with just the right amount of action, humor, suspense, and compassion…. In the end, what resonates deepest are the characters…. Readers will come away from this book feeling as if they actually lived alongside the great writer…. A tale that will echo in the mind long after the last page has been turned… The Crook Factory exemplifies the kind of fiction that Hemingway held in high esteem, writing that is ‘truer than true.’ ”
—Denver Post
“The essence of good historical fiction is not being able to tell where history ends and fiction begins, and in this The Crook Factory succeeds extraordinarily well. Simmons adds to this a brilliantly realized portrayal of Hemingway—a daunting and difficult task—and embeds it all in a straightforwardly gripping narrative: the result is a wonderful read.”
—Iain Pears
“A gripping read from start to finish…. Dan Simmons is, in many ways, the reincarnation of Robert Louis Stevenson…. The Crook Factory, a fast-paced spy thriller rooted in recent history, is yet another milestone in the career of one of America’s finest writers.”
—Des Moines Sunday Register
“A carefully wrought and immensely entertaining espionage yarn that manages to involve Hemingway and his motley crew in the machinations of the FBI, the OSS, the Abwehr, the Gestapo, British and Russian military intelligence, and corrupt agents of both Cuba and Brazil.”
—Charleston Post & Courier
“A first-rate espionage thriller that can do nothing but enhance Simmons’ already considerable reputation as a storyteller.”
—Denver Rocky Mountain News
“Dan Simmons makes you truly feel that you are with Hemingway in one of his real-life adventures as the great writer hunted Nazi agents and chased German U-boats off the coast of Cuba in 1942. Every Hemingway fan will love this book, as will every fan of espionage novels that tell it the way it is.”
—David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of First Blood and Creepers
“Exciting… entertaining… amazing…. Novelist Dan Simmons has uncovered perhaps the most eccentric chapter in Mr. Hemingway’s life.”
—Detroit Free Press
“A gutsy speculation on Ernest Hemingway’s exploits in wartime espionage…. As vividly depicted by Simmons, pre-Communist Cuba is an exotic locale whose volatile wartime intrigues are comparable to those of the cinematic Casablanca. It’s the perfect milieu for Hemingway, whose larger-than-life evocation must be accounted one of Simmons’s sterling literary achievements.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Extraordinary entertainment… laced with amazing historical vignettes…. I was mesmerized by Dan Simmons’s brilliant and unique period thriller.”
—Philadelphia City Paper
“An excellent thriller…. Simmons skillfully builds his story into the ambiguities in actual history through solid writing and research…. The result is fiction true to the spirit of Hemingway and his times.”
—Portland Oregonian
“A real page-turning espionage story complete with corrupt police officials, double agents, secret codes, and multiple murders. Simmons offers one of the best fictional portraits of Hemingway without falling into hero worship…. A fun read for both Hemingway aficionados and spy novel enthusiasts.”
—Library Journal
“A sophisticated historical espionage thriller… ambitious and thoroughly researched…. A born storyteller… Simmons has over the last decade repeatedly shown himself to be one of the most versatile, intelligent, and unpredictable novelists around.”
—Locus
“This fabulously compelling and humorous rendering of the little-known war operations and secret agent skullduggery in the Caribbean in the summer of 1942 will surely charm readers who love history, suspense, and intrigue.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“Hemingway would like this thriller.”
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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GUIDE TO INTELLIGENCE SERVICE
TERMS AND ACRONYMS
GERMAN
Abwehr: German Military Intelligence—oldest of the various intelligence services—headed in 1942 by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. While charged by Hitler to work in cooperation with Heinrich Himmler’s SD/RSHA Nazi political intelligence wing, the two agencies were deadly enemies.
RSHA: Reich Nazi internal security agency—Reichssicherheithauptamt—headed by Heinrich Himmler. Himmler, who was also in charge of the SS and eventually the SD, had as his primary goal the destruction of Canaris and his Abwehr network: actual espionage and counterespionage came second.
SD: Sicherhetsdienst. The intelligence and counterintelligence wing of Himmler’s RSHA, headed (until his assassination in May 1942) by Himmler’s ruthless protégé, Reinhard Heydrich. Upon Heydrich’s death, Himmler took direct charge of the SD as well as the SS and overall RHSA.
AMT VI: “Department 6”—the division of the RHSA’s SD devoted to conducting espionage in foreign countries.
Department D4 of Amt VI: Commanded by Grüppenleiter Theodor Päffgen, the section responsible for SD/RHSA political espionage in Latin America.
SS: Schützstaffel. Unit of Nazis originally created to serve as a personal bodyguard to Adolf Hitler and whose responsibilities, under Himmler, were widely expanded to include intelligence, internal security, policing action, and the extermination of undesirables. Some antique typewriters in Germany still have the “twin-lightning-bolt” key denoting the SS.
Gestapo: Dreaded secret police of the Third Reich. Actually RSHA Amt IV controlled by Himmler.
Marine Nachrichtendiest: German Naval Intelligence. As with the Abwehr, an independent military intelligence service not directly controlled by the Nazi political wing.
Vertrauensmann: German Abwehr secret agent or “V-mann.”
micropunkt: microfilm used by Abwehr agents, developed at the Institute of Technology in Dresden.
BRITISH
MI6: British Foreign Intelligence.
MI5: British Internal intelligence/counterintelligence.
XX Program: Literally “Double Cross”—British intelligence’s highly successful attempt to “turn” enemy agents. By the end of the war, all German agents in England were working for the British.
NID: Naval Intelligence Division. Headed by Admiral John Godfrey, who personally hired the young ne’er-do-well, Ian Fleming, who excelled in espionage and rose to the rank of commander in the NID.
Assault Unit 30: One of Ian Fleming’s many outrageous and successful ideas—a group of felons and misfits trained for wildly improbable missions behind German lines. Later the basis for the film The Dirty Dozen.
BSC: British Security Coordination. A branch of MI6 run out of New York City to provide counterintelligence operations in North and South America. Its secret goal prior to Dec. 7, 1941, was to help draw the United States into the war. The BSC was headed by William Stephenson, code-named “Intrepid,” arguably the most successful secret agent of WWII.
Camp X: BSC special training and operations center near Oshawa in Canada. Many FBI/SIS counterintelligence operatives were also trained there by British experts. The plot to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, head of the German SD, was worked out at Camp X.
AMERICAN
FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover, Director.
SIS: Special Intelligence Service: counterintelligence division of FBI created during the war, especially involved with Latin American operations (“Joe Lucas’s” special area of expertise).
COI: “Coo
rdinator of Intelligence”—foreign intelligence and counterintelligence service of the U.S. created and headed by William “Wild Bill” Donovan. The COI (later the OSS and eventually the CIA) was known for its bold operations and for hiring “unlikely” secret operatives—such as Marlene Dietrich, Julia Child, famous American writers, etc.
OSS: Office of Strategic Services: name change for Donovan’s COI in June of 1942. According to an arrangement made that year, the OSS was to be in charge of “foreign intelligence”—i.e., overseas spying—while the FBI/SIS was to retain jurisdiction over all counterintelligence operations in the Western Hemisphere. In reality, the two agencies clashed constantly. J. Edgar Hoover’s goal was nothing less than total control of all U.S. intelligence operations, foreign and domestic.
CIA: Central Intelligence Agency: descended directly from the OSS, one of many agencies now charged with gathering intelligence for the U.S. government. Bill Casey, the head of the CIA during the Reagan era, was a protégé of Bill Donovan’s.
ONI: Office of Naval Intelligence. Early in 1942, the ONI was very concerned by an illicit affair between one of its young intelligence officers in Washington—John F. Kennedy—and an older woman under suspicion of being a Nazi secret agent. Kennedy was transferred overseas.
The Latin American division of ONI was run in 1941–42 by a hunchbacked dwarf named Wallace Beta Phillips, a consummate spymaster who left Naval Intelligence after his work there in cooperation with the BSC was constantly compromised by the FBI. He later joined the OSS.
G2: U.S. Army Military Intelligence. In 1942, G2 was spending much of its time and energy following, wiretapping, and investigating such probable enemy agents as the Vice President of the United States, a former Secretary of State, Eleanor Roosevelt, and young Lt. John F. Kennedy.
SDI: Intelligence service of the U.S. State Department.
RUSSIAN
NKVD: Narodnii Kommissariat Vnutrennikh Del—the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs—Stalin’s intelligence service and de facto secret police, run by the psychopath Lavrenty Beria.
GPU: Soviet internal secret police until 1935, later the MVD.
OTHER
DOPS: (Delgacio Especial de Ordem Politica e Social) Brazilian political police specializing in counterintelligence, often in liaison with the FBI/SIS.
Contents
Welcome
Epigraph
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Reading Group Guide
A note from Dan Simmons on The Crook Factory
Questions and topics for discussion
About the Author
Also by Dan Simmons
Extraordinary acclaim for Dan Simmons’s The Crook Factory
Guide to Intelligence Service Terms and Acronyms
Newsletters
Copyright
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 1999 by Dan Simmons
Cover design by Allison J. Warner; cover photograph from National Archives and Records Administration
Cover copyright © 2013 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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Drawing here by Joseph Ascherl; illustrations here, here, here, and here from German Militärarchiv; map here from German Armeekorps archives; transcription here from National Archives
ISBN 978-0-316-21347-9