Franco's Map - Walter Ellis.epub

Madrid: 1940. The Spanish Civil War has been over less than a year. Generalísimo Francisco Franco, “answerable only to God and history,” is consolidating his power and meting out “justice” to his enemies. But with World War II raging, the Caudillo is presented with a fresh temptation: join the Axis powers and drive the British from their stronghold in Gibraltar – the key to the Mediterranean.

MI6 sends a spy to assess the crisis. Charles Bramall, a young Army officer, whose ancestral home in Ireland was burned down by the IRA is appointed aide-de-camp to the exiled Prince of Wales, with entrée to the highest echelons of Spanish society. But with Germany pressing Franco to allow the Wehrmacht to enter Spain, time is running out. Bramall enlists help from two unlikely sources. Isabella Ortega is the beautiful, wilful daughter of a top Spanish official. She says she loathes Hitler and despises Franco. But she is also a proud patriot. Eddy Romero is a maverick, half-Spanish Dubliner who fought in the International Brigades but as an ex-IRA man burns with a hatred of the British Empire. Can Bramall trust either of them? The unlikely trio, natural enemies, face impossible odds. Can they overcome their backgrounds, including the legacy of a terrible murder, to stop Gibraltar falling to the Nazis and keep Britain in the fight?