Nazi Gold, Portuguese Wine, and a Lovely Russian Spy

About the Book

It’s 1943, and handsome young Charles Worthington is the chief of the American Office of Strategic Services in neutral Portugal. Because of its neutrality, Lisbon is the spy capital of wartime Europe. Spies from both sides mingle on the narrow cobblestone streets, the beaches, and at the famous Estoril Casino, in between nighttime meetings with agents, double agents, and simple conmen just trying to make a dollar, pound, or mark by selling bogus information to either side of the war. The closely guarded signals intercept program ULTRA has revealed that the Italian Embassy in Lisbon is somehow obtaining OSS secrets, and Charles is tasked by OSS director Wild Bill Donovan to stop that leak. While pursuing that investigation, he hears a rumor that German Abwehr chief, Admiral Canaris, is planning to smuggle Nazi gold through Portugal to Brazil and thus begins a second important investigation. Along the way, the lovely Russian NKVD intelligence officer Olga, whom he’d known in New York City before the war, reappears in his life, assisting his investigation but also greatly complicating his personal life. Weaved into this semifictional plot are the real-life spies Kim Philby, Ian Fleming, Duncan Lee, and British double agents Garbo and Tricycle. There is espionage, betrayal, murder, revenge, and love while searching for the gold—and it’s still only Tuesday!

About the Author

Mr. Coyle spent thirty years as a field operations officer for the CIA, almost half of that time abroad, working undercover in a variety of countries, including Portugal. He is a recipient of the CIA’s Intelligence Medal of Merit for one of his Russian operations. Since retiring in 2006, he has been teaching at Indiana University. Having been a history major and himself a spy, he is able to weave together a plausible tale of espionage in a city he knows well. He shows in this, his fifth spy novel, that nothing is ever quite as it initially appears, nor are moral choices always simply black-and-white.