By Alyce Werdel
I’ve been a thriller junkie since childhood. It all started with the Nancy Drew series and held steady from there. Movies, books, TV shows – nearly everything I read or watch is a mystery or spy story. I had never thought of writing one myself until a few years ago when my German friend (perhaps a little frustrated with my single genre interest) said that I was so immersed in krimis, I should consider writing one myself. And so I did.
Inspiration for Vengeance, my novel-in-progress, stems from the time I’ve spent in Berlin and my interest in Cold War history. Even as a teenager I couldn’t read enough about life behind the Iron Curtain. For me it was filled with secrecy and intrigue. A place where the government spied on their citizens. A place so bad people died trying to escape. I wanted to experience these places firsthand. And in Summer 1988 I got the opportunity to do so. I spent several months in Russia, Poland, and other parts of Eastern Europe. My last stop was West Berlin. The divided city remains, to this day, the most interesting place I’ve been.
The difference between East and West was dramatic. The West was vibrant, dynamic, full of energy and color. The East was subdued, a world painted in black and white. Some aspects were amusing, like the blow dryers that took hours to dry hair. Or the two cylinder cars that looked like cardboard boxes on bike wheels, coughing out black exhaust. But other differences were more serious, like jailed, and often executed, dissidents who dared to speak out against the government. For me, this divergence was even more remarkable in divided Berlin because one could pass from West to East in a matter of minutes.
I’ve returned on several occasions over the years, each time digging a little deeper into Cold War history. Last year, during an extended stay, I visited an old bunker in Wündsorf-Waldstadt, about an hour south of Berlin. I was surprised to find an entire city of war ruins left untouched since the Soviet troops’ departure in 1994. Known as “the Forbidden City,” I began to imagine a scenario where a clandestine group uses the bunker complex to plan their nefarious activities. After all, it abuts an uninhabited forest. Who would know? And I’ve always wondered, where did all the Stasi go? These are the thoughts that prompted my story.
If someone had asked me as a child what I wanted to be when I grow up, I would have answered, “a spy.” But reality got in the way and I went to law school instead. Nevertheless, I can still play one in a book. If you’re interested in what that might feel like, take a look at the excerpt, “Under Pressure,” in Volume I of Ground, available on Amazon.