Untitled Historical Novel

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Thank you, From the entire team at Level 4 Press Copyright © 2018 Level 4 Press, Inc. 2 Project Specification Book Title Untitled Historical Fiction Spy Thriller Comp Author/Books Writing Style The Huntress by Kate Quinn Taut, espionage thriller Primary Genre Secondary Genre Thriller Historical/Bio Primary Location Time Period City-Europe WWII (1939-1945) Mood/Tone Tense, confident, passionate, exciting, smart, visceral, entertaining. Logline Inspired by a true story, when Germany invades France, a most unlikely woman becomes a spy for the French government-in-exile and helps prepare the way for an Allied victory against Hitler. Theme and Related Arc What are you willing to risk in the name of your ideals? Character Sex Age Comments Betty McNamara F 30-49 Protagonist Character Description BETTY MCNAMARA (born Beatrice Mendoza): Free-spirited, glamorous, exotic, and talented singer. By 1939, Betty, a Mexican-American ex-pat living in Paris, has become one of the wealthiest and most successful women in Europe. Perceived as apolitical and non-partisan, Betty’s generous philanthropy and legendary eccentricity have made her a favorite of all of Europe. But as WWII begins and the battle is brought to her doorstep in Paris, she will have to decide whether she will continue to stay on the sidelines or finally take a stand. She was never a fan of the United States, but as America begins its first major offensive in the war, Betty will be forced to decide whether she will become a spy for the Allies and, in turn, confront the very demons that sent her running to Paris. Story Concept / Short Synopsis (for context) Inspired by a remarkable true story, this book is, more than anything else, a thrilling WWII spy novel that takes us from the streets of Paris in the 1940s as the Nazis roll into France, through rural Vichy, France to Portugal and Morocco. Betty McNamara, one of Europe’s wealthiest women, puts everything on the line to spy for the French Resistance. Using her fame and beauty as a distraction, Betty gathers intelligence from German and Italian military brass, which she then feeds to the French Resistance, all the while staying just one step ahead of the pro-Nazi French intelligence officer who is convinced of her treachery. Readers will fall in love with Betty’s larger-than-life personality, her singular eccentricity and her great bravery, as she takes on the Nazis and their allies within the French Vichy government. Copyright © 2018 Level 4 Press, Inc. 3 Project Specification Story Beats/Outline Note that it is important to transport us to the time and place, as all great period pieces do, but also to capture the tension and gravity of the scene. Betty and her companion, Gerard, are both dressed for a lavish party, as they emerge from their expensive car in Vichy, France. They look up at the mansion-turned-embassy as her companion reminds her that they need to make this fast. She doesn’t need any reminders. They enter the cocktail party filled with diplomats and high-ranking French and Nazi military personnel. Everyone at the party seems acutely aware of Betty’s arrival. She is famous and she is loved. Almost immediately, Betty elegantly kisses her companion’s cheek and surreptitiously whispers that now is the time. Betty graciously excuses herself and heads towards the lady’s room. Her companion quietly mingles, then slips out as well. Once out of sight Betty quickens her pace. Gerard catches up to her. They hurriedly climb stairs then make their way down a hall. They are searching for a particular office. An official, clearly working late, opens his office door, heading home for the evening. Gerard manages to hide, but Betty is caught off guard. The official is shocked to find Betty in the hallway and demands to know what she is doing in this restricted area. He does not seem to recognize Betty (despite her being a celebrity). Betty suddenly feigns drunkenness, distracting him and allowing Gerard to slip out of hiding and quietly run down the hall to continue the mission. Betty leads the Nazi official by the arm toward the lady’s room. As soon as the official is gone, she looks at her watch (damn! Time is running out) and picks her mission back up. Finally, she finds the private office she is looking for, slips in, and closes the door behind her. Gerard is already there searching the room for the prize they came here for. Books line the walls from floor to ceiling in this elegant office. On the desk, a lamp illuminates a picture of a dapper officer smiling with his beautiful young wife and baby. Betty goes to search the desk. Gerard tells her that he already looked there. She searches the desk anyway and finally finds a hidden portion of a drawer and the envelope they were looking for. Excellent. She tosses the envelope to Gerard with a wink. She’s good at this. Suddenly, a thump at the door. She turns off the lamp and dives under the desk. Gerard presses himself against a wall, totally exposed. A German man and woman stumble into the barely lit office, ripping at each other’s clothing. They giggle and make their way to the desk as Gerard slips out of the room with the envelope. At the desk, the German man pulls his companion’s dress up, sets her on the desk, and begins unbuckling his belt. Betty, crammed underneath the desk, inches from the couple, decides to make a run for the door, slamming it behind her before the couple has time to react or see who just rushed past them. Now it’s a Copyright © 2018 Level 4 Press, Inc. 4 Project Specification race to get down the hall and back to the safety of the party before anyone stops her or recognizes her. Finally, practically falling down the last few stairs, she arrives back at the party, straightens her dress and . . . “Betty, there you are! Where did you disappear to? Dietrich has been dying for a picture with you.” And with that, Betty McNamara is back to being the beloved celebrity that everyone at this elegant event hopes to get a picture with.








Untitled Historical Novel


Betty McNamara lifted the hem of her floor length devore gown over the running board of the Peugeot her companion Gerard drove. The vehicle was hers, but the world-renowned starlet wasn’t about to shuttle herself to an embassy engagement. After Gerard stepped out of the other side of the car, he stood for a few moments in awe at the parade of Citroëns and Delahayes that rolled up the driveway, as well as the pearl and diamond necklaces that draped over the female partygoers’ necks. He looked over at Ms. McNamara, herself taking in her surroundings as well—but the woods beyond the embassy, not the guests’ transportation or their priceless jewels. Aside from her own fabulous wealth, Betty felt nothing but a visceral disgust for the spoils of German blood money. Though recognizing the actress was in fact surveying the grounds for escape routes should their mission be compromised, Gerard still tapped his wrist. Time simply didn’t allow them to plan for failure.
Entering the front of the embassy, Betty and Gerard passed a German Obert regaling a pair of French officers with stories of his battlefield triumphs, to which the men responded with wide-eyed, obsequious nods. As the theatrical celebrity and her companion drifted into the ballroom where the party was taking place, heads turned, and guests noted Betty’s arrival with whispers and silent, pantomimed applause. Immediately upon seeing Ms. McNamara, a French Brigadier’s wife hurried to the bar to fetch her a sifter of brandy. Betty quickly started downing the aperitif as she continued to greet her admirers, military personnel and their spouses who clamored for details of her latest role. She recoiled at the adulation she received from the Vichy French guests, men and women who’d cultivated such unctuous, fawning flattery as a mode of self-preservation. No sooner had Betty finished her drink when she reached over and kissed Gerard on the cheek, signaling him with a whisper. She smiled once more at her public, excusing herself before making way out of the ballroom’s back door and towards the lady’s room.
Now walking through the hallway, she scanned the entire corridor to make that no other partygoers, who might observe her circuitous route through the embassy, lingered outside the central gathering. Establishing that the halls were empty, Betty quickened her pace as she walked right past the restroom and towards a staircase beyond it. A few feet behind his companion, Gerard, who’d just left the party as well, made double strides to catch up with her. Betty knew, however, that even rushing through the hall before another guest spied them wouldn’t guarantee that they’d reach the second floor unnoticed. She’d recognized while leaving the soiree that on the top steps they’d be visible to other partygoers through an arched glass lunette above the ballroom door.
Ms. McNamara held her breath as they climbed the final few stairs, glancing rapidly at the heads of the guests on the first floor to make sure that no one at the affair had detected them while they passed through no-man’s land.
Betty and her partner had no sooner reached the second-floor landing when an official opening his door surprised them. Having caught sight of him exiting the suite moments before Betty, Gerard used the split second the Nazi took locking the office to duck into an intersecting hall. Unfortunately, Betty knew that she hadn’t time to make the same pivot.
“What are you doing up here?” the official asked her in broken French.
Betty knew that without an alibi she and Gerard were seconds from being paraded past the other guests in handcuffs. She began circling her head in a display of intoxication. “This isn’t the way to the lady’s room?” she responded to his question in an equally stilted version of their host country’s language. She then took the official’s arm. “I’m terribly sorry. I think I remember where the W.C. is now, but won’t you please accompany me, as I might very well lose my way again.”
Betty then walked the bureaucrat past her partner standing silently in the adjoining hall. Ms. McNamara apologized for her condition repeatedly as she directed the Nazi down the corridor. When she and the German had finally made it to the restroom door, Betty showed her gratitude with a tight squeeze of SS officer’s arm. At this gesture, he abruptly pulled his arm from her embrace, scowling in an exhibition of contempt for her coquettish wiles.
She then stood behind the jarred bathroom door, her eyes fixed on the Nazi until he’d disappeared down the steps. The moment his head dipped below the top of the staircase, she rushed out of the restroom. She glanced at her watch as she sprinted down the hall, knowing already she and Gerard only had a matter of minutes until the partygoers recognized their absence.
Betty darted towards the suite they’d been looking for, where her partner was already busy at work excavating the room for the envelope. The floor to ceiling bookshelves that lined the office walls intimidated Betty the moment she entered—she knew the letter could be hidden among the pages of any of those volumes. She began searching a desk, glancing at a photo atop the furniture item of a Nazi standing next to his wife and looking proudly at their infant, whom his spouse cradled in her arms. The man’s broad smile was almost enough to humanize the enemy, to cause anyone working for the allies to momentarily question her mission.
But not Betty. The seasoned thespian was quite familiar with all that a smile could cloak, particularly that of an SS officer, an operative whose domestic joys were the reward for his collaboration in the slaughter of millions.
She continued to rifle through one desk drawer after another.
“I’ve already checked in there,” Gerard informed her after glancing over at his companion sifting through the desk.
“Did you?” she then asked finally pulling up the false bottom of a drawer to reveal the letter. She winked at Gerard before tossing him the envelope.
Suddenly the two spies heard a thump as a German man fell into the office door. Betty doused the lights. Her muscles tensed as she prepared to spring under the desk. She immediately felt swathes of dampness collecting under the collar of her gown. Though taking cover, the fear of discovery quickened her heartbeat. She struggled to regulate her body’s response to the sounds of the German and his partner now entering the room through forced gentle breathing.