A deadly amateur, a top-secret formula, and full mating plumage
Welcome to the information page for book six in the Operation Quickline series, These Hallowed Halls. Operatives Sid Hackbirn and Lisa Wycherly go undercover at a small arts college. The paperback book sells for $15.99 and the ebook for $3.99. It is approximately 270 pages long and can be found at any of the fine retailers below.
In the sixth Operation Quickline story, operatives Lisa Wycherly and Sid Hackbirn are sent undercover at a small arts college in Wisconsin. The job is to find out who is stealing a top secret chemical formula being developed by someone on the faculty. The catch is that no one knows who the developer is, let alone who is stealing the formula or even how.
The other catch is that Lisa’s cover is as an English professor and Sid’s is as an older student, which means the two aren’t working side-by-side. With their relationship still at an impasse, Lisa sees an opportunity to find out just how good she is on her own. Faculty politics are rank enough, not to mention the food in the Faculty Dining Room. There’s also trying to figure out which, if any, of her colleagues has been working with the KGB. Then managing three wet-behind-the-ears fellow operatives.
The one thing Lisa can’t do is let on just how much in love she is with her gorgeous Basic Composition student.
Find out more about the Operation Quickline Series
Check out the first chapter from the fiction serial that ran on the blog
Writing These Hallowed Halls
What kind of surprises me about this novel is how much of the plot remained intact from the original novel that I wrote around 1983. As I did the re-writes on the Operation Quickline series, I changed quite a bit in terms of plot and dialog. That’s because I’m a much better writer now than I was when I first wrote the stories.
But this plot held together. That may be because it’s closer to a traditional murder mystery than some of the others. I’ve always enjoyed reading cozy mysteries and whodunits, and that element will always be part of this series.
Losing a fave character
However, leaving the plot intact meant that a certain character would be killed. Not saying here which one – I’m not going to assume that you’ve read the story. The problem was that this character really grew on me in the re-writing. In fact, I came very close to leaving this person alive. But it wouldn’t have worked.
Sometimes we have to be brutal in this business.