The Devil's Spies Book Sale and Giveaway 2

​ 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?


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"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.”

 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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What inspired you to write this book?

The West waged and won the Cold War. Now it seems in some ways the West in general and the United States in particular is lurching politically towards a Marxist world view. I’m sure that comment will generate some ill will, but I know too much history to not feel concern by events that are transpiring.

More people have died under the boot of communism than any other ideology in the history of man. It’s not open for debate.

If you look at the intolerance for competing ideas in the political realm, cancel culture, lawfare, and the blatant disregard for the Constitution and rule by law, you will see a lot of parallels with how different countries fell under the control of communism.

It should be noted, when communists seized control of a country, they were never the majority. In fact, they were a vocal, violent, and determined minority.

In order to first establish and then maintain control, they had to stomp out by any means possible voices of opposition. Religion in general and Christianity in particular were targeted because they define morality in absolutes of right and wrong. People had centuries of holding onto these ideas. Now, the government is to serve as the source of what is right and wrong, what is considered moral behavior.

You can’t have two competing systems of morality. People will follow one and reject the other. Communism simply cannot exist in an environment where it has to compete with a fixed standard of what is right and what is wrong. The “privilege” of making that determination must lie in the hands of the Party.

Department XX/4 really existed. The Stasi infiltrated the Church in East Germany. It successfully recruited pastors, seminary professors, and influential lay members to spy on and even denounce other Christians. The impact on the faith of East German Christians when the wall fell and the truth of what had happened became known was considerable and it was negative.

When I heard news accounts that the American FBI has infiltrated the Catholic Church in the United States, I was understandably alarmed. Simply going to church could get you put on a domestic terrorist watch list.

It’s not right and it’s a bit frightening to me.

So, I felt compelled to write a fictionalized dramatic account of Department XX/4, the Berlin Wall, and life during that brief snapshot of history.

You can read the story for face value. It happened in East Berlin and East Germany.

If you are aware of the current political climate here in the United States, you can read warning signs into The Devil’s Spies.

Regardless, I thought it was a compelling idea and a story worth telling. Like any work of historical fiction, it is up to the reader to take from it what they want.



What can we expect from you in the future?

My plan is to write one work of historical fiction like The Devil’s Spies each year. In addition, I hope to release one or two books in my Sullivan series each year as well. If I have a non-fiction book, it will mean only one Sullivan story that year.

I produce a bi-weekly eNewsletter for my readers. Nothing too serious. Pictures and updates of my Golden Retriever, Bella, and occasionally our miniature poodle, Mr. Darcy. Updates on whatever work is in progress. The history teacher in my pops up as I have a section in the newsletter called Influenced by Past Events which is where I share my research. I will suggest books I’ve read that I liked.

I can write and publish four books a year but it’s a stretch. Thus, the plan at the moment to try to settle into a routine that produces three books a year, every year.


Do you have any “side stories” about the characters?

I have an entire five novella series set in the Thomas Sullivan universe called Capital City Characters. They were fun to write and helped me to flesh out these recurring characters and Capital City itself as a character.

In the Paine stories, the railroads featured in each story all have their own history. All of the railroads in these four stories are real and with the exception of the Death Railway – think Bridge Over the River Kwai – the Burma-Siam Railroad built by the Imperial Japanese Army during WW II – I have ridden all of them.

The Devil’s Spies has a number of side stories that provide important glimpses into key characters in the story.


Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in The Devil’s Spies?

They all have their flaws. Some are obvious and others are subtle.
Others are not what they truly seem upon first meeting them.
None of the characters are purely good or evil.

For the fan of history, some of the characters should be readily recognizable as historical figures. Others are obscure, but noteworthy historical figures. The story might be fiction, but the suffering, fear, and desire for freedom was real.

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