This new spy novel by American author and former military intelligence professional, Karl Wegener, begins as all good spy stories should—with a whisper in the dark, a meeting already compromised, and danger sliding into view before the first word is spoken. Following an introductory chapter we are introduced to Ada Bialik, working under the alias Felicja Nowak, slipping into the seaside town of Puck under cover of teaching. “Her mind returned to her one desire, the single focus of her being that had driven her for more than three years … revenge.” From this moment, there is no easing in, only a headlong plunge into duplicity and danger. The curtain rises on a stage built from post-WW2 paranoia.
The sequel to Grown Men Cry at Night, the book is apparently based on the true events of Poland’s anti-communist insurgency, and all the characters are based on real people as explained at the end. All in all, Operation Nightfall: The Web of Spies spins a premise that will sound familiar to fans of John le Carré and other classic spy writers. Hopping between heads and POVs, Ada is one of if not the novel’s heroine. She is a Polish resistance veteran scarred by the Nazi occupation and the Soviet takeover, drawn into a perilous mission that stretches across Poland and into the heart of Europe.
What begins as a cover assignment unravels into a dangerous game of shifting allegiances. Each contact she makes could be an ally or a trap, and every choice threatens to expose not only her mission but her very identity. In this world of shadows, the question is never just who can be trusted, but how long trust itself can survive. Alongside her are figures such as Luba Haas, a tireless exile who refuses to abandon Poland’s cause, and Yuri Sokolov, a Soviet officer known as “Stalin’s Excecutioner”, whose merciless pursuit turns espionage into a battle of wits as much as survival.
Ada is no polished heroine, no indestructible figure from cinema. She is flawed as all believable characters are, driven as much by grief and anger as by duty. The memory of her murdered mother haunts her far more effectively than any enemy. “Trust your instincts,” were her mother’s last words, and they echo through every decision she makes. The world around her is populated by figures who refuse to sit neatly on one side of the moral line. Her path crosses with Luba Haas, the Polish-born SOE veteran, and their shared struggle binds two generations of fighters. Luba, the Polish-born SOE veteran, reminds her colleagues, “We’re trying to finish the last damned war. That war didn’t end for Poland when Germany surrendered … It’s the same enemy, but they’re wearing a different uniform.” If nothing else, it’s a historically educational novel for people interested in the period, and I certainly learned a lot.
Clearly backed by a great deal of historical research, Wegener has a skill for bringing the historical period to life, and has a sharp ear for dialogue. Warsaw is cloaked in fear, Puck’s quiet streets conceal danger, and every forest path seems to echo with ghosts of both Nazi and Soviet violence. In one scene, Sokolov describes the aftermath of a partisan ambush with chilling calm: “The first man here … the force of the impact with the wire sliced his head cleanly off.” Each place is not merely background but a trap, ready to spring shut on the unwary.
One of the biggest reasons to pick up Operation Nightfall is Karl Wegener himself (a pseudonym). As detailed in his author bio, he is a former military intelligence professional, and indeed he writes with the authority of someone who has lived inside the world his characters inhabit. His years as a Russian linguist with the U.S. Army Security Agency and later the Air Force Intelligence Service Reserve gave him a firsthand view of Cold War espionage and the precarious balance of nuclear logistics. That background bleeds into his fiction, lending it a credibility that few readers of spy thrillers can match. When Wegener describes the shadowy manoeuvres of rival agencies, or the grinding paranoia of intelligence work, the reader knows it comes from someone who knows what they’re talking about.
The prose itself engaging throughout, and at 330 pages it’s the perfect length. Wegener keeps his action scenes clipped and staccato, every short sentence landing like a heartbeat in a chase. Then, with sudden precision, he allows for description that borders on the lyrical. Dialogue is razor-edged, always leaving the sense that what remains unsaid is more dangerous than what is spoken.
While some might argue that the characters and plot occasionally struggle to move beyond familiar spy tropes, not all fiction needs to transcend its genre to be effective and, after all, this is based on real events. Wegener embraces the conventions with confidence, and what the novel may lack in originality of premise, it more than makes up for in execution. In addition, any jargon and acronyms that may leave the uneducated reader confused are helpfully all explained in the introductory glossary. Overall, for those who press on, the reward is a thriller that has both pulse and soul.
When the story is done, it is not the gunfire that lingers, nor the coded signals, but the people who lived through them. Ada Bialik remains foremost: strong, yet achingly human, her endurance ringing louder than any bullet. Alongside her stands Luba Haas, a symbol of exile’s endurance, and across from them Yuri Sokolov, whose cruelty is made more powerful by the fact he’s based on a real guy. It is Ada slipping into classrooms under her false name, Luba pressing on with her doomed cause, and Sokolov unmasking his prey that will stay with me.
Final verdict: Web of Spies is both a tense, intelligent historical spy thriller and a meditation on betrayal and the post-war period. It entertains with its suspense and gripping scenes while educating the reader on history, and leaves behind the sense that no one who lives by lies can ever truly escape them.
You can get your copy of Operation Nightfall: The Web of Spies here!
