Tag: #historicalfiction

Book Descriptions and Elise’s Thoughts

The Hunt for The Peggy C and Rescue Run by John Winn Miller has life and death decisions that lead to daring escapes.  The stories display how the hero, Captain Jake Rogers and the heroine, Miriam Maduro, have both courage and resilience. Both books’ plots show how the hunter and the hunted navigate their way through the war zones of the North Sea, the Atlantic, Europe, and the Mediterranean.

 The Hunt for The Peggy C has Captain Jake Rogers of the aging tramp steamer, The Peggy C, smuggling contraband merchandise, for money. While in Amsterdam he is paid by Miriam’s father, Mr. Maduro, to smuggle to Gibraltar his most perilous cargo, a Jewish family of six: Uncle Levy, a rabbi; his three young children; and two sisters, Miriam and Truus. But things do not go as planned when a U-Boat commander forces the ship to be boarded by three of its crew members in search of contraband. Unfortunately, they see too much, and the Peggy C crew is forced to take them prisoner. Out for revenge for being humiliated, the U-boat commander Viktor Brauer doggedly pursues the ship hoping to torpedo it to smithereens.

The sequel, Rescue Run, has Captain Jake Rogers returning to the North Atlantic as commander of a US Liberty ship with many of his crew. Unfortunately, it breaks down and they end up in Ireland.  While there, Rogers learns from Dutch sailors that the Nazis have arrested the father of Miriam Maduro and have deported him to a concentration camp.  In the first book Miriam and Rogers have become lovers and realize they care for each other. Rogers and crew sneak back into Holland aboard a gun-running ship from neutral Ireland and contact a resistance group to help them get Maduro to safety.  While in Holland they learn that Miriam is in grave danger in a Nazi prison and has been tortured.  Determined to rescue her they once again ask a resistance group to help in a daring rescue attempt.  This is where the cat and mouse games begin, as a Nazi bounty hunter is in hot pursuit to get the reward put on Miriam’s head. Now the heroes must navigate informants, imposters, gangsters, and double agents to escape to safety by using disguises, fake documents, subterfuge, and guns.

These stories have nonstop adventure and intrigue that keep readers in a perpetual state of suspense. The nail-biting tension mixed with heartwarming moments makes for a page turner. A bonus are the true historical details about the war and the countries involved that lend to a powerful authenticity.  If readers want to learn more about the characters at the end of the second book are additional reading materials, research notes, and blurbs about the historical figures and their fate.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?

John Winn Miller: Years ago, I watched a bad TV adventure movie with my family. I knew I could write a better story. The next day I woke up from a dream and knew the first scene, the last scene, and the name of the ship. Because I had no personal experiences with U-boats, Merchants ships, or the settings in the plot, I took several years to do the research and get the facts straight.

EC: What was the role of Peggy C in the first book?

JWM: It is the name for the cargo ship. A Jewish family was rescued by the ship’s captain, Jake Rogers.  The ship is chased by a Nazi U-boat. It is thirty years old but did well in the cat and mouse game with the U-boat. I wanted to use a slow ship to make it hard to get away. The ship was like a character in the story.

EC: What was real in the story?

JWM: The drug Pervitin was used to give the Nazis a jolt of energy and euphoria. It made them confident, courageous, and fearless. It helped people stay awake for several days. Hitler’s pirates are real. Pirates originated from the idea of Winston Churchill during WWI.  The Nazis decided to use that idea in WWII. The more bizarre, the more I made sure it was real.

EC: There is a powerful quote in the book that can also be used today after October 7^th. Please explain

JWM:  You are referring to, “You and your kind make evil leaders like Hitler possible and yet you pretend you are only fighting for country.” It was the typical defense of the Nazis; I was just following orders. There is no moral responsibility to stand up to evil whether soldiers in the German army or collaborators in the occupied countries, apart from Denmark.

EC: How would you describe the U-boat Commander Brauer?

JWM:  He is based on three real U-boat captains. He is deranged and cruel. I took the worst traits of the worst U-boat captains. He is very much convinced of the righteousness of what he is doing. He is a war criminal and what he did is based on a true story. I based him on a real captain that had a troubled career. Brauer wanted revenge against Rogers after being humiliated.

EC: How would you describe the heroine, Miriam?

JWM: A reader, smart, impulsive, courageous, fighter, tough, optimist, and determined.  She starts out to a damsel in distress but becomes a hero by the end of the story.

EC: Do you think Miriam changed in the second book after she was tortured by the Nazis?

JWM: Yes.  She got a heavier heart, became more suspicious, not trusting, with feelings of gloom, anxiety, dread, and anger. She was a young medical student but now had to fight back and become tough to save her family.  She grows more than anybody in these books. She realizes that those who told her not to fight back were wrong and thinks of them as fools, especially the Jewish Council in Amsterdam.

EC: How would you describe the hero, Rogers?

JWM: He is a cynic, loyal, a good navy man, clever, caring, with a bit of a temper. He is self-educated.

EC: What about the relationship?

JWM: Rogers and Miriam have a bond they share with the love of books. They care for each other but must navigate their differences because they come from entirely different cultures and religions.

EC: Why did you make a cat and mouse plot in both books?

JWM: I love the Bourne movies and realize that the tension is ratcheted up, especially as they get closer to each other in proximity. I enjoy the chase where they are trying to outrun and outsmart the enemy. Rogers realizes he is not as strong as the enemy, so he must use his brains to escape, many times getting ideas to think his way out from the books he read.

EC:  Why the quote at the beginning of the second book, Rescue Run?

JWM:  You mean this one, “To the brave heroes and heroines who gave their all, and often their lives, to defeat fascism’s heinous ideology of intolerance, racism, nationalism, and anti-Semitism.” There were soldiers and others who had the courage to stand up. Many of them are actual historical figures where I tried to remain true to who they were. For example, Miriam’s friend, Tineke Butcher, who hid them. She, her mother, and her grandmother, hid more than 100 Jewish refugees.  The Gestapo raided her home eight times, arrested her nine times, and beat her; yet she never revealed any secrets. Even at great personal peril.

EC:  Was the resistance leader, Miss 2000, real?

JWM:  Yes. Very few did I make up.  She was the only woman to create and lead a resistance movement during the war. She and her group sheltered more than 4,500 during the occupation, providing them with food, clothing, rations, and false identity papers, as I wrote about in the books. I hoped I highlighted her courage and her wanting to stand up for what was the right thing to do.

EC:  What about Hitler’s bounty hunters like the character, Janssen?

JWM: I stumbled across this book, Hitler’s Bounty Hunters, about them and could not believe it. Janssen has no morals and no convictions.  He was in it for the money and what made it more fun for him is that he did not like Jews. He has pure greed.

EC:  What about your next book?

JWM: The title is Miriam in The Shadows and will be published March 2026. The plot has Miriam and Rogers sent to France on separate missions by the English Intelligence Agencies. There will be double crosses, double agents, and interjacencies that have dirty deals.

THANK YOU!!

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