Second Volume of the Berlin Tunnel Trilogy
Historical Fiction
To Be Published: September 8, 2020
From Amazon bestsellers list author Roger L. Liles comes the second volume
of his Cold War trilogy—THE COLD WAR BEGINS. The setting is
war-ravaged Berlin in late 1946. Spies from both sides begin to move with
relative ease throughout a Germany occupied by British, French, American and
Russian military forces. Kurt Altschuler, our hero, soon becomes one of
them.
While working behind enemy lines as an OSS agent in France during World War
II, Kurt learns that intelligence collection involves both exhilarating and
dangerous encounters with the enemy. He relished every moment he spent as
part of the vanguard confronting the Nazis.
That war has been over for 18 months when he is offered a job as a CIA
deep-cover agent in the devastated and divided city of Berlin. He jumps at
the opportunity, but is concerned that his guise as an Associated Press News
Agency reporter will offer little action. He need not worry. Soon, he is
working undercover, deep inside of Russian-controlled southeastern Germany.
Eventually, KGB agents waylay him and tear his car and luggage apart. His
chauffeur is beaten. He is threatened with prison, torture and death.
Enter Erica Hoffmann, a very attractive, aspiring East German archeology
student. Any relationship between an undercover CIA agent and an East German
woman is strictly forbidden; she might be a KGB or Stasi agent or operative.
But he cannot help himself—he has fallen hard for her. Kurt strives
assiduously to maintain their tempestuous, star-crossed relationship.
Eventually, Kurt works to counter the efforts of Russian and East German
spies, especially a mole who is devastating Western Intelligence assets
throughout Europe. He also must work to identify and expose enemy spies who
have penetrated the very fabric of the West German government and society.
He frequently observes to others that: “the spy business is like knife
fighting in a dark closet; you know you’re going to be cut up, you
just don’t know how bad.”
About the Author
Roger L. Liles decided he had to earn a living after a BA and graduate
studies in Modern European History. He went back to school and eventually
earned an MS in Engineering from the University of Southern California in
1970.
In the 1960s, he served as an Air Force Signals Intelligence Officer in
Turkey and Germany and eventually lived in Europe for a total of eight
years. He worked in the military electronics field for forty years—his
main function was to translate engineering jargon into understandable
English and communicate it to senior decision-makers in the
government.
Now retired after working for forty years as a senior engineering manager
and consultant with a number of aerospace companies, he spends his days
writing. His first novel, which was published in late 2018 was titled The
Berlin Tunnel—A Cold War Thriller. His second novel The Cold War
Begins was published in late 2020 and is the second volume in his planned
The Cold War Trilogy. This trilogy is based on extensive research into
Berlin during the spy-versus-spy era which followed World War II and his
personal experience while living and working in Europe. He is in the process
of writing its third volume of the trilogy which will be titled The Berlin
Tunnel—Another Crisis and takes the story into 1962 and the era of the
Cuban Missile Crisis.
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