Latest Books Codename: Parsifal with Martin Roy Hill

The Big Thrill Sits Down to Discuss CODENAME: PARSIFAL with Martin Roy Hill

The Spear of Destiny. The Roman Legionnaire’s lance that pierced Christ’s body as he hung on the cross.

Legend claims whomever possesses it will become a great conqueror. But if they lose it, they will lose everything—including their lives.

Shortly before WWII, Hitler stole the spear from a museum in Vienna. In the last weeks of the European war, he lost it. General George Patton orders an American OSS team to find the spear and recover it. Unknown to the Americans, both the Russians and the Germans have also sent commando teams to retrieve it.

In the dying embers of Europe’s largest conflagration, the three teams are on a collision course that will lead them to one of the evilest places on earth—the ideological heart of the Nazi SS.

Inspired by historical events.

Martin Roy Hill recently spent some time with The Big Thrill discussing his latest thriller, CODENAME: PARSIFAL.

Can you pinpoint a moment or incident that sparked the idea for this book?
I read an article about an American Army officer’s search for the stolen Holy Roman Empire relics at the end of WWII. The Spear of Destiny is one of the relics the Nazis stole from a museum in Vienna before the war. When the Allies began bombing Germany, the relics were hidden away and this officer received information from a German POW on where they might be found. That started me thinking what if there was a race between American, Nazi, and Russian commandos to retrieve the Spear of Destiny right at the end of the war with the Cold War looming in the not-too-distant future? That was basically the genesis of the book’s plot.

A novel is such a major undertaking; there’s the writing of it, of course, then you’re spending months and months revising, polishing, and then promoting it. How did you know this was the book you wanted to spend the next couple of years on?
I have always been a great fan of the WWII novels written by Jack Higgins and Alistair MacLean. You know, novels like The Eagle Has Landed or Where Eagles Dare—those type of thrillers. I thought writing one would be as much fun as reading one. I also enjoy reading about and writing articles on military history. So, I bounced several ideas around in my head until I settled on the plot for Codename: Parsifal. And you know, I was right. Writing the book was a lot of fun.

In addition to a great read, what do you hope readers will take away from this story?
At its heart this story is about power—those who have it and those who desire it. The Spear of Destiny represents the pathway to acquiring that power, but such power is always fleeting. Everyone who has ever owned the spear has lost it, along with all that it brought them.

What can you share about what you’re working on next?
I’m currently writing another sci-fi/horror novel featuring Deployable Specialized Force-Papa, a secret U.S. Coast Guard team sent to investigate mysterious events of “high strangeness” at sea that can endanger maritime trade. DSF-Papa appeared in my novels Polar Melt and Chimera Island. This new book takes place in the Devil’s Sea off the coast of Japan and brings in many theories expounded by modern physics to “explain” in a fictional sense the number of ship and aircraft disappearances in that region of the Pacific.

Martin Roy Hill is the author of the Linus Schag, NCIS, thrillers, the Peter Brandt thrillers, DUTY: Suspense and Mystery Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, Polar Melt: A Novel, and EDEN: A Sci-Fi Novella. His latest Linus Schag thriller, The Butcher’s Bill, received the Best Mystery/Suspense Novel of 2017 from the Best Independent Book Awards, the Clue Award for Best Suspense Thriller, the Silver Medal for Thrillers from the Readers Favorite Book Awards, and the award for Adult Fiction from the California Author Project. His latest Peter Brandt mystery, The Fourth Rising, was named Best Mystery of 2020 by the Best Independent Books Awards, 2020 Best Crime Thriller by the American Fiction Awards, and the 2020 Clue Award for Best Suspense Thriller by the Chanticleer International Book Awards.

To learn more about the author and his work, please visit his website.

Codename: Parsifal with Martin Roy Hill