Book Title: Operation Tulip
Series: Secret Agent Series
Author: Deborah Swift
Publication Date: 12th September 2024
Publisher: HQ Digital
Pages: 410
Genre: Historical Fiction
Any Triggers: mild violence associated with the era.
Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2024/07/blog-tour-operation-tulip-by-deborah-swift.html
Operation Tulip
By Deborah Swift
Holland, 1944: Undercover British agent Nancy Callaghan has been given her toughest case yet. A key member of the Dutch resistance has been captured, and Nancy must play the role of a wealthy Nazi to win over a notorious SS officer, Detlef Keller, and gain crucial information.
England: Coding expert Tom Lockwood is devastated that the Allies have failed to push back the Nazis, leaving Northern Holland completely cut off from the rest of Europe, and him from his beloved Nancy. Desperate to rescue the love of his life, Tom devises Operation Tulip, a plan to bring Nancy home.
But as Nancy infiltrates the Dutch SS, she finds herself catching the eye of an even more senior member of the Party. Is Nancy in too deep, or can Tom reach her before she gets caught?
Inspired by the true events of occupied Holland during WW2, don't miss this utterly gripping story of love, bravery and sacrifice.
Excerpt from Operation Tulip by Deborah Swift
Baker Street, London
Tom Lockwood put the newspaper down on his desk, took off his glasses to rub his eyes, then put his head in his hands. So the rumours were true. Operation Market Garden had failed. Monty’s tanks had got stuck in mud and instead of a liberated Holland, they were now faced with half a country cut off completely from foreign aid. What would Gerbrandy, the Dutch Prime Minister do now?
Tom chewed his pencil. No-one could possibly understand just how desperately he’d been looking forward to Nancy coming home, and to the end of this whole damn war. A few weeks ago he could almost touch it.
And what would liberating only half of Holland mean for his job here at Baker Street? Would N Section be training any more men? He enjoyed his work – there was something satisfying in bashing the mysteries of codes and ciphers into the brains of new agents.
Just then his telephone rang.
Neil’s familiar voice down the crackly line. ‘Have you heard anything?’ He meant about Nancy of course, though he couldn’t say it. Neil was Nancy’s brother and they were both supposed to think Nancy was working as a nurse with the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, or FANYs. They weren’t supposed to know she was an agent in occupied Holland.
‘No, nothing,’ Tom replied. ‘Just what I read in the paper.’
‘Lilli and I listened to Radio Oranje last night like I always do. It’s horrendous. The port of Rotterdam is in ruins and the Germans are destroying anything the Dutch have built, out of sheer spite. Generations of trade reduced to rubble! Not just that, but can you believe they’re bombing and destroying pumping stations? At this rate coastal areas will soon be back under water. They’re evacuating the coastal towns but there’s no way people can get out of the occupied zone, they’ve just nowhere to go.’ His voice cracked. ‘Most of them are too scared to do anything but hide.’
Tom flipped the paper over, one ear glued to the phone. ‘I’ve got the Standard in front of me and it says here they’ve no electricity or fuel. No trams, no telephones. We have to do something. I can’t bear to think of how bad it must be.’
‘What? We can’t do anything.’
‘I don’t know.’ He lowered his voice, ‘Get Nancy out somehow.’
‘But how can we do that? I’m still here at the radio unit at Wavendon, and you can’t do anything with Beauclerk. You know how he has to okay every last little thing.’
Tom pictured his boss, worn ragged by the war. Beauclerk was a nervous wreck, but he’d some sympathy for the man. Though still heading the offices at Baker Street, he was obviously unwell, grey in the face and showing signs of Parkinson’s disease. ‘I don’t know. Can you and Lilli get up to London?’ Lilli was Neil’s wife.
‘Maybe, next weekend, if we can get a train.’
‘Come to my flat then, and in the meantime, I’ll see what I can find out.’
*
Tom loped up the long flight of stairs to the offices and knocked on Beauclerk’s door. A grunt of ‘Enter’ from his boss. Beauclerk was leaning on the desk, poring over the same latest edition of the Evening Standard, a cold cup of coffee at his elbow. The picture of the King on the wall behind him had been replaced with one of Churchill, complete with brooding, intent expression, and cigar in hand.
In contrast, the war hadn’t treated Beauclerk well, his face was drooping, worn and greyish, like old lined concrete.
A sigh. ‘What is it now?’ Beauclerk’s voice had a resigned tone. He clutched one arm to his waistcoat to stop it shaking. His Parkinson’s disease must be getting worse.
‘I saw the papers. What are ‘N’ Section doing about the agents in the north?’ Tom asked. ‘Are they being evacuated?’
A sigh. ‘You know perfectly well I can’t tell you that.’
‘Which means they aren’t.’
‘Their intelligence is still useful. And the place will fall eventually. Has to.’
‘Eventually. When they’re all dead of starvation. You’ve read it?’ Tom pointed to the Standard.
‘Look, I can’t do anything. I know it’s bloody, but I can’t. I should throw you out of my office with a flea in your ear for even asking.’
‘You won’t though. Because you know I’m one of the few people you can trust. That you can tell the truth to. And that counts for a lot in this mad old game we’re in.’
Beauclerk made a face and stirred his cold coffee. Tom watched the milky skin congeal around the spoon.
‘It’s plain enough we can’t get troops over the Maas river,’ Beauclerk said. ‘The Germans have bedded in. The coastal ports are sealed. No-one can get in or out. We’ve stopped all agent drops. Anti-aircraft guns line the banks of every estuary and canal, so there’s no way we can fly anyone in or out.’
‘So our agents’ll just be left to rot with no supplies, no ammunition, and no possible way out.’
‘I’m sorry Tom, but I can’t do anything. And I suppose now’s as good a time as any to tell you – I’m retiring.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m an old horse and they’re putting me out to grass. Ill-health.’
‘When?’ Tom reeled. Baker Street ‘N’ Section without Beauclerk was unthinkable.
‘End of next week. Last of the month. It’ll be Paterson’s problem then, not mine.’
‘Paterson? Rodney Paterson?’ Tom couldn’t believe it. ‘But he’s hopeless. He’s just a jumped-up yes man!’
‘Whatever you think of him, he’s my replacement. He’s tasked with winding down my section of the Political Warfare Executive. And you know him, he always likes to do things by the book.’
Tom groaned. ‘Everything he does is glacial. It’s a catastrophe over there! Someone will have to do something – not just for our agents, but the whole of Holland.’
Praise for Deborah Swift:
'A well crafted tale… this book did not disappoint' NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'There is action, mystery and romantic entanglements stirred into the story for a fantastically entertaining read' NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Deborah Swift never disappoints' NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'A joy to read' NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Buy Links:
Universal Buy Link: http://mybook.to/Tulip
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https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/operation-tulip-ww2-secret-agent-series-deborah-swift
Deborah Swift is a USA TODAY bestselling author of twenty books who is passionate about the past. Deborah used to be a costume designer for the BBC, before becoming a writer. Now she lives in an old English school house in a village full of 17th Century houses, near the glorious Lake District. After taking a Masters Degree in Creative Writing, she enjoys mentoring aspiring novelists and has an award-winning historical fiction blog at her website www.deborahswift.com.
Deborah loves to write about how extraordinary events in history have transformed the lives of ordinary people, and how the events of the past can live on in her books and still resonate today.
Recent books include The Poison Keeper, about the Renaissance poisoner Giulia Tofana, which was a winner of the Wishing Shelf Book of the Decade Award, and a Coffee Pot Book Club Gold Medal. Her most recent books are The Silk Code and The Shadow Network both set in the Second World War.
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