Wolf Pelt

Wolf Pelt: Cold War in Greece, Love, and Trust Revealed

In 1951, the newly established American CIA is getting its feet on the ground. A bankrupt British empire sells its cash-happy cousins a mole-ridden campaign to overthrow the Albanian communist government. The Brits call this armed insurrection Operation Valuable, and the CIA Operation BG/Fiend. Infiltration and logistics flow from Greece, a country overrun with spies from far and wide.

The protagonist, Stavros, returns to teaching after World War II and his service in the OSS as commander of a Greek operational group. There he wreaks havoc on Germans, learns "the Greek way," and falls in love with the captivating Dimitra. After the war, the couple remains in a long-distance romantic relationship. The CIA recruits Stavros to return to Greece posing as an academician working on his PhD. His actual mission is to organize a "cultural influence group" and support logistics for Operation BG/Fiend. He and Dimitra, now working with the Archeological Society of Athens, engage in a serious and challenging relationship.

Stavros encounters much local color as he winds his way through Greece. Personalities are not always what they seem, and Stavros falls into a precarious relationship with devious Penelope, "the mouse."