Karl, Operation Nightfall is a sequel, after your first, Grown Men Cry Out at Night. What’s happened between the two novels?

Historically speaking, quite a bit. My first novel, Grown Men Cry Out at Night was set in Bremen, Germany in 1946. The war in Europe had just ended, and the battle lines of what would become known as the Cold War were just being drawn. In early 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his now famous “iron curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri where he noted that the capitals of Eastern Europe had fallen under Soviet control. At the same time, in February 1946, Stalin declared the wartime alliance with the West was “bygone,” and announced plans for the Soviet Union to rebuild, industrialize, and rearm.

By late 1948, when Operation Nightfall: The Web of Spies is set, the rules of engagement were in place. The policy of containment would become the cornerstone for conducting U.S. foreign policy, and the intelligence services of the United States and Great Britain were actively engaged with anti-communist groups across Europe and Asia. Both the United States and Great Britain mounted covert operations with the aim of not merely containing communism but replacing it and rolling back communism to the borders of the USSR. A British operation, codenamed “Jungle” is the basis for Operation Nightfall – its goal was to infiltrate agents, arms, and fighters into the Baltic states and overthrow the Soviet-backed governments.

There are two main characters who make the leap from Grown Men Cry Out at Night to Operation Nightfall. Major Casper Lehman is a U.S. Army Counterintelligence Agent stationed in Bremen, Germany. Luba Haas is a former SOE operative, who now works for the U.S. and Lehman. Together, they are running intelligence gathering operations out of the American enclave. They also became involved romantically, and that relationship grows in Operation Nightfall.

We’re in 1948 and the early days of the Cold War. Who are the main characters and what sort of people are they?

Luba Haas was born in Poland and was a former SOE agent. She’s been asked to support the British and help identify a Polish sleeper agent, codenamed Lygia. Haas is conflicted about the mission. She loves the life she has created with Caspar Lehman, but feels she has no choice. She lost her entire family during the war, so for her, it’s a matter of unfinished business.

Natalie Jenkins is also a former SOE agent, but the war ended before she could be deployed. This is her time, her opportunity to shine and she is eager to demonstrate she has the right stuff. She is, however, inexperienced. Her superiors at MI6 have asked Haas to “mentor” her and keep an eye on her in the field. This creates tension, so much that it could possibly undermine their mission.

Ada Bialik is a twenty-something Polish woman who served alongside her mother in the Polish resistance during the Warsaw Uprising and during Operation Tempest. She is hot-tempered and wants to avenge the death of her mother during the final days of the uprising in 1944. She is driven by a desire to drive the Soviet occupiers out of her country.

As for the male characters in the book, Yuri Sokolov is the main antagonist. Sokolov is a Soviet GRU officer charged with crushing the anti-communist insurgency in the Pomerania Region of Poland. Sokolov has been an executioner for the communist regime since the Russian Revolution. He is brutal and the personification of evil, but we learn that he wasn’t always that way. I based his character on the life of Vasily Blokhin. Blokhin was hand-picked by Stalin to lead a group of executioners and oversaw thousands of mass killings during the Great Purge and along the Eastern front during WWII. He is purported to have killed more than 10,000 men by his own hand.

Female characters are major players in your novel. Was that intentional or are they based on real characters?

It was intentional. After WW2, and for many years afterward, the role of women in intelligence was diminished from the role they played during the war. So, I wanted to pay homage to their service, and quite frankly, I wanted to write a novel that might be of interest to women readers.

The character Luba Haas is based on a real person, Krystyna Skarbek or Christine Granville as she was known in Great Britain. Skarbek was Britain’s first female SOE agent and longest serving woman in the service.

You’ve set the story in Poland, a country that suffered terribly during WW2, and continued into the Cold War. Why this country in particular?

Poland had the third highest per capita rate of deaths in WW2, behind the Soviet Union and China. I wanted to write a story about Poland because most people don’t know that when war in Europe ended in May 1945, fighting continued in Poland for another eight years. Hundreds of thousands of Poles participated in the anti-communist insurgency and tens of thousands were arrested and sent to labour camps. I wanted to shine a light on those brave people.

Espionage novels are by their very nature concerned with plot twists and turns. How did you find planning out the story?

I don’t create a detailed outline. I usually write the ending first and this allows me to know where I am going. I’m what is known as a “panster,” – I write by the seat of my pants. Of course, my editor helps tremendously during the developmental editing process. That is where we fill in any plot holes and resolve other structural issues. When writing, I try to get into the mind of my characters, hear their voices, and allow them to tell the story. I often feel as if I am merely a scribe, and eventually it all flows out.

You’ve based part of the novel on declassified files. Were these American or the notoriously more secretive British documents? Why do you think there is a difference between the two?

There are many excellent resources including the CIA Archives, and they are all available online. The CIA archives provided considerable background information about the Gehlen Organization, and about life in post-war Germany and Poland. Additionally, for this book, I used Polish, German, and Danish sources that laid out many of the details of how the British infiltrated agents into Poland and across the Baltic.

You’re a veteran of the Cold War. Do you think it’s captured well by novelists?

There are so many aspects to the Cold War and I think it is virtually impossible to capture the entire history. But writers such as John Le Carre, Graham Greene, and Len Deighton certainly captured the atmosphere of the era. When I think of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, it immediately brings me back to my own days in the service, and I can relate to that experience.

The Cold War was the defining event of the latter half of the twentieth century. The average American doesn’t really understand how it still impacts events to this day. So, I hope authors will continue to write about it. I’m confident that even though there have been many stories written about the Cold War, there are many more to be told.

Which writers inspire you?

I’ve mentioned Le Carre, Greene, and Deighton. To me, they are among the greatest writers of the genre. But I also am inspired by any author, who year after year, can produce a large body of work. For example, I’m not sure Robert Ludlum is as critically acclaimed as the three writers I’ve mentioned. But you must give him credit. He can produce, and that certainly inspires me.

Are you planning a third novel?

Yes, I am currently working on a novel titled The Missiles of Vogelsang. It is set for publication in mid-2026. It’s a historical spy novel inspired by true events. It is set in 2003 but has a dual timeline that goes back to the late 1950s. It is the story of a CIA weapons expert who is investigating whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. She reunites with her former university professor and lover to ask for his help, and she discovers the answer may lie in solving a 40-year-old mystery: Did the Soviets deploy nuclear missiles to East Germany in 1959, three years prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Karl Wegener is the author of Operation Nightfall: The Web of Spies.