''The Crook Factory'' is a

thriller novel Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Su ...

by American author

Dan Simmons Dan Simmons (born April 4, 1948) is an American science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works which span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes wi ...

. The book was initially published by William Morrow on March 1, 1999. The novel tells a fictionalized version of the real life counter-espionage and spy ring, known as the Crook Factory, that was set up by

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Overview

The novel is narrated by Joe Lucas, an FBI agent who is sent to Cuba by

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation ...

to monitor Hemingway's activities. Lucas is at first bewildered why the director of the FBI has taken a personal interest in Hemingway and his spy network, which Lucas considers amateurish and almost silly. As the novel unfolds it becomes clear that Hemingway's ragtag organization is at the center of a complicated game of war-time counter-intelligence involving the FBI, the

OSS OSS or Oss may refer to: Places * Oss, a city and municipality in the Netherlands * Osh Airport, IATA code OSS People with the name * Oss (surname), a surname Arts and entertainment * ''O.S.S.'' (film), a 1946 World War II spy film about ...

, British intelligence, and the two German intelligence organizations operating at that time, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and the

Abwehr The ''Abwehr'' (German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ''Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. A ...

. Lucas goes from a reluctant monitor of Hemingway to an active participant in the Crook Factory's operations.

Basis on actual events

While the novel is fictional, it incorporates multiple real events and almost all real people as characters. An author's note at the end of the novel reveals that many of the novel's events are based in fact, most notably the existence and organization of the Crook Factory, along with Hoover's interest in Hemingway, the support Hemingway received from the US Ambassador to Cuba, the activities of German intelligence agents in Cuba and South America, and the various historical and celebrity figures who frequented the '' finca'' where Hemingway lived outside Havana.

References

1999 novels American thriller novels Novels by Dan Simmons Novels set in Cuba Novels set during World War II {{1990s-WWII-novel-stub