The following review was originally written for the The Rocky Mountain News. Mark Graham teaches English at Arvada West High School in Colorado. His "Unreal Worlds" column appears monthly in Books. The review is Copyright © 1999 by Mr. Graham and reprinted here with his permission.

The Crook Factory: A Review

Longmont's Dan Simmons is well known around these parts, and most of the rest of the world, as one of this generation's greatest writers of visceral supernatural horror (Carrion Comfort and Song of Kali to name a couple) and a master of science fiction (Hyperion and Endymion and their sequels being most significant).

For most genre writers leaving the safe harbor of the type of fiction their fans expect would be nothing short of career suicide. In fact, a prominent fantasy author suggested in a recent interview that, "Dan has made a big mistake." It will be interesting to see if this major departure from the fantastic worlds he has created will enhance Simmons' popularity or deflate it.

The Crook Factory, according to the author, is 95% true, and it bears out the old axiom that, frequently, the truth is stranger than fiction. It seems that, in the spring of 1942, German submarine traffic was much heavier in the Caribbean than most Americans realized. One American who was cognizant of the fact was Ernest Hemingway. Already an author of considerable stature, the future Nobel Prize winner was living on a small ranch in Cuba with his third wife, and when he wasn't writing, he was in his 38-foot boat, going after trophy fish.

But the one fish he wanted to land more than any other was a German U-boat. To this end Hemingway assembled an eclectic group of Cubans and Americans he called the Crook Factory, whose purpose was espionage and whose final goal was the capture of a German submarine.

His entourage included athletes, millionaires, prostitutes, con men, children and a priest, all of whom took to Hemingway's "game" with various degrees of seriousness. Much of the cost of the author's operation was borne by the American government. Apparently, British spies, including Ian Fleming, the eventual creator of James Bond, were also involved. All of this is true.

The only major creation by Dan Simmons is the first-person narrator of the tale, FBI agent Joe Lucas. Unlike Fleming's flamboyant 007, Lucas reflects the true character of most operatives. While he has been involved in more action than the majority of his peers, his character is fairly bland, and he acts as a catalyst, remaining constant and bringing the action to a head. This is a masterstroke by Simmons; keeping Lucas from becoming some kind of super-hero reinforces the idea that he is relating what really happened in that strange spring and summer.

The narrative starts slowly as Joe Lucas is called to Washington where J. Edgar Hoover personally assigns him as special liaison between Hemingway and the FBI. To Lucas this seems almost a punishment, as he feels he will be far from the action and intrigue that are heating up in the War.

Hemingway welcomes the help from the government in his plans to undermine the Germans, not knowing that Lucas has really been assigned to spy on him.

Once Joe is joins the Crook Factory, he becomes more and more confused. At first the whole affair seems an elaborate game, with Hemingway and his cronies drinking heavily and throwing firecrackers at the neighbors. If this is so, why is Hoover spending so much time and money to mollycoddle the writer and adventurer and his playmates? Just who is the enigmatic person he is reporting to in Havana? And, finally, are he and Hemingway being set up for a plot neither of them understand?

Because Joe Lucas is a good, if plodding, agent, he begins to unravel the web of deceit he has unwittingly become involved in. And the results will be surprising and destructive to everyone involved.

If all of the facts that are revealed about the part Cuba played in World War II, the secrets involving such luminaries as John F. Kennedy, Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Ingrid Bergman, Ian Fleming, Eleanor Roosevelt and others were all this book contained, it would be among the most fascinating of the decade. From the pen of Dan Simmons, it is not only fascinating information, but first-rate espionage thriller.

If readers judge The Crook Factory strictly on literary merit, there is little doubt that this latest novel can do nothing but enhance Simmons' already considerable reputation as a storyteller.