THE CROOK FACTORY Dan Simmons

Finished Th 9/12/13

The book is a fact based fictional work concerning Ernest Hemingway's little-known Caribbean based spy operation in Cuba during the height of WWII. J. Edgar Hoover, tyrannical head of The Federal Bureau of Investigation,  was deeply suspicious of Hemingway's supposed 'leftist leanings' and he enlisted FBI agent Joe Lucas to keep tabs on the spy ring. The novel is told from Joe's point-of-view, and initially he disliked and distrusted Hemingway, but the novel is also documents his change of heart towards the author.

This historical novel is a gripping tale of riveting suspense with unbelievable characters who are accurately modeled on the real participants, and the book offers a real insight into what Hemingway 'the man' might have been like. In the 'Author's Note' at the end of the book Dan Simmons acknowledges that although THE CROOK FACTORY is a work of fiction "the vast majority of details, characters, incidents, dialogues, and wartime events are true".

I can't recommend this book enough, and I definitely want to read more by Dan Simmons.


NOTES-

P. 219-220 FROM THE LIBRARY BOOK
Why was the director so interested in Hemingway's penny-ante operation? Why the visits from the BSC's Ian Fleming and the OSS's Wallace Beta Phillips (the bald dwarf)? Why assign someone as serious and deadly as Delgado as liaison? (this man was Lucas's contact and worked for the FBI, but might have been a German agent planted by Himmler) Why should the raido operator from the Southern Cross be murdered and who had murdered him? (This was an American ship that Hemingway thought was helping the Germans, and refueling U-boats). Why assign a weak sister Abwehr agent like Theodor Schegel (this guy had an American name also) to head it up? Was Helga Sonneman in on the Abwehr mission and, if so, what was her role in it? (She was one of the rich people behind the Southern Cross's enterprise, and might have been working with Schlegel, but who was the boss).  How did Hemingway get Martin Kohler's radio codes (this was the radio operator that had his throat cut), and was their getting the codes part of some larger deception? What was the reason that the FBI was funneling large sums of money to the Cuban National Police through a killer like Lieutenant Maldonado (this guy's nickname was CRAZY HORSE, and he has a violent showdown with Lucas in a creepy national cemetery in Havana. Lucas overpowers him but is gravely wounded, however he manages to lock Maldonado in a tomb, and the man walks with a limp for the rest of his life). And why was the FBI also funding Schlegel and the Abwehr at the same time?