The Paris Chase
The Secret Churchill Files Book 3
David Lewis
Kensington Pub
July 2028
The Paris Chase by David Lewis is both an escape and chase story. It is very suspenseful because of the compelling story.
The plot has Agent Hector basically MIA but the other agent, Caitrin Colline, is front and center. Because the mission of the previous book has been completed, secret unit 512 has been disbanded and has been absorbed into SOE, Special Operations Executive, with its members scattered into other units.
At first Caitrin is delegated to office work. But she is determined to show her worth and wants to be sent to France as an agent so she decides to take the rigorous physical tests, which she passes. The problem is she does not speak French like a native.
Winston Churchill believes in her and after he creates a new secret unit, 8, he chooses her as his most trusted agent. Her job is to go undercover in France to gather information and help on missions. She is charged by Churchill to personally bring back a former German SS officer, Dieter Silber.
Dieter’s assignment is to make copies of the Nazis plans to exterminate the Jews, The Final Solution, and pass them out to German administrators throughout Paris. He is horrified by this and decides to defect to England and then eventually America. He’s basically the most wanted man in Paris, and the Germans, cruel and determined, are willing to sacrifice many French lives to capture him.
When Caitrin arrives, she’s sheltered by an old friend, Evelyn, and her glamorous mother, Solene, who happens to have a beautiful apartment on Rue Foch across the street from the Gestapo headquarters. While Dieter is being moved to safety Caitrin needs to locate him while at the same time avoiding the Nazis who are also looking for him.
This is a suspenseful World War II mystery. The story has bravery, cunning, loss, and camaraderie.
Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?
David Lewis: I used a lot of research from the previous two books. I came across this horrible story about the Divine Scene Protocol, which was the Nazis plan to eliminate all the Jews, intellectuals, gypsies, and anybody else. And I discovered that they had 16 copies of it, and one went missing. The allies got the information later than I made in my story. And I think that they sat on it, although everyone denies that.
EC: Was this book plot driven or character driven?
DL: I think it’s a mixture. My main protagonist, Caitrin, took a big step forward because she had never been out of Britain, and suddenly, she was in France, and doesn’t even speak the language. So, the story very much involved her, and very much involved the young German who absconds with a copy of the protocol, the document about elimination. I spent a lot of time on him, so I would say it’s probably 60/40 a character driven plot.
EC: How would you describe Dieter, the German who stole the Protocol?
DL: I did a lot of research of the 1930s. I see him as a young man who’s basically a straight shooter. But he also gets caught up in the whole National Socialist organization sensation. Being a working-class kid, and kind of broke at the time, it was very appealing to be part of a great club. As he was enjoying it up with Adolf Eichmann, and Reinhard Heydrich he sees what they have in mind and he realized he does not want to do it. In fact, when he goes to Paris to deliver the document, he pulls up outside, and he’s about to do it, and then he says, ‘No, I cannot, my conscience will not let me do it.’ He decides he wants to go to America and write cowboy westerns.
EC: So, he came to his senses?
DL: I mean, being a working-class kid in the middle of the depression, and suddenly he has the chance to join this organization where he gets a uniform, and everyone admires him, and they look up to him, and they’re going to build this wonderful new journey. Because at that time, nobody knew about the Protocol. All they knew was that Germany had risen from the ashes. And it wasn’t until he saw it that he thinks, ‘Oh, my God, this is a nightmare.’
EC: Is it true Churchill’s wife, Clementine, advised him on politics?
DL: Yes, because he, being an aristocrat, he could be quite rude and quite dismissive of people. And she would very often just tap him on the head and say, ‘Winston, what you did was wrong.’ And she would argue with him at dinner with guests. Very high-level guests, and she would say, ‘Winston, have you thought about this?’ I adore Clementine Churchill, as I do, Eleanor Roosevelt, two of my great heroes.
EC: Was it true about the SOE 512 and 8?
DL: I think they reflected the values at the time, which was anti women. SOE 512 disbanded and was made into a smaller group called 8, which is Churchill’s idea. Get it: 5, 1, and 2, equal 8.
EC: How would you describe one of the resistance characters, Solene”
DL: She is very sophisticated and knows the world. Very gracious, but at the same time, a lot of men would be quite scared of her because of her strengths. She is aristocratic, and direct, but by no means snooty. She’s just a very brave lady and gutsy. She knows her own voice.
EC: Next book?
DL: It is titled Winston’s Women and will probably come out this time next year. It is the story of Clementine Churchill and Eleanor Roosevelt. It was based on a true story, which is when Eleanor came to Britain, to travel around and look at the bombed cities, with Clementine, so she could report back to FDR. And for Winston, that was very important because he wants to make sure that FDR kept the supplies coming. So, the women got on a train headed to Glasgow but when it arrives, they’ve disappeared. They have a week to find them before panic settles in.
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