Sarah Sundin is the bestselling author of When Twilight Breaks, Until Leaves Fall in Paris, The Sound of Light, Embers in the London Sky, and the popular WWII series Sunrise at Normandy, among others. She is a Christy Award winner and a Carol Award winner, and her novels have received starred reviews from Booklist, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. Sarah lives in Southern California. Visit SarahSundin.com for more information.
In this interview, Sarah discusses some of the ethical concerns surrounding trust and deception during WW II, as well as what prompted her to use Scotland as the backdrop for her story.
FF: Can you please provide a brief summary of Midnight on the Scottish Shore?
A member of the Dutch resistance, Cilla van der Zee finds herself in trouble and desperate to escape the Netherlands. When she learns the Germans are recruiting spies to go to Britain, she leaps at the chance, planning to slip away from German sight as soon as she lands. Her plans go awry when naval officer Lt. Lachlan Mackenzie finds her along the Scottish shore and turns her in, knowing she’ll be executed. But Britain’s MI5 offers a chance to save her life—to become a double agent and send misleading messages to Germany. She works on these messages from her station at Dunnet Head Lighthouse in Scotland . . . with the help of Lachlan, who is far from willing.
FF: Cilla van der Zee is involved in resistance movements, intelligence gathering, and counterintelligence, all of which require her to lie and deceive. How does this sit with her conscience and how does she justify her actions?
For fun-loving Cilla, this isn’t an issue. She sees it as “acting,” a game. Since she’s deceiving the Nazis, who are oppressing and murdering the Dutch people, she feels justified. As the story develops, her conscience does too—and she becomes conflicted about her work. However, for straightlaced Lachlan, the world of counterintelligence does not fit at all. Integrity and duty drive him. Over time, he begins to see that deceiving the enemy about Allied plans could save lives – and help bring the war to an end.
FF: Lt. Lachlan Mackenzie arrests Cilla as a spy when she turns up in Scotland, and is later forced to work with her. He is reluctant to trust her. How does she win him over?
All Cilla’s charms do nothing to sway Lachlan. Over many months, he gains respect for her skills and even comes to like her. But never to trust her. Only when she risks her life and her hard-earned reputation for the sake of others, does he see she is indeed—has always been—on the Allied side. He knows he can trust her, and this shakes him deep inside.
FF: Your characters are always unique, layered, and complex. What are the traits of the two main characters in Midnight on the Scottish Shore that you most admire?
Cilla was a joy to write—she’s unlike me in every way! She’s charming, optimistic, and witty. She’ll try anything and she laughs off failure. Although she never focuses on her flaws, the events of the story force her to take a hard and humbling look at herself, which made me love her even more. I grew fond of Lachlan for very different reasons. He’s a man of duty and integrity, a man who lives within the lines—until Cilla comes and bends all his lines out of shape.
FF: Midnight on the Scottish Shore is set in Scotland, a unique backdrop for a WWII novel. Can you tell why you chose this setting?
My husband and I are both part Scottish, and he challenged me to tell a story set in Scotland. Then our mythology-loving younger son told me the legend of the selkie, a creature that appears as a seal at sea and as a beautiful woman on land—and gets trapped when an enamored man hides her sealskin. I immediately pictured a female spy landing—and getting captured by a man in a kilt. The thought of a lighthouse flitted into my head, and I found Dunnet Head Lighthouse in the far north of Scotland, which served as a radar station during the war and faces Scapa Flow, the naval base for the British Home Fleet. I could not wait to write this story!
FF: Midnight on the Scottish Shore delves into the topics of trust and deception. How do you explore these ethical challenges in your writing?
The beauty of a novel is having a large playing field to explore issues from multiple angles. Trust can be hard to earn and easy to lose—and when we trust, we gain intimacy but we also become vulnerable. In this story, Cilla struggles to earn trust and Lachlan to give it. And we all know deception is wrong, yet most of us would lie to save the life of an innocent. So where and when do we draw the line? Cilla and Lachlan start at far ends of the spectrum but find the issue is more nuanced than they realized.
FF: You’re known for your meticulous historical research. Can you share an interesting fact you discovered while researching Midnight on the Scottish Shore?
Since this is my first novel with an espionage angle and my first set in Scotland, I found so many interesting facts. First, the story of “Mutt and Jeff” intrigued me. These two Norwegian men landed in Scotland as spies, but became double agents—and MI5 used them to commit fake sabotage! Second, on my research trip we visited the Ring of Brodgar in the Orkneys near Scapa Flow, a “henge” similar to Stonehenge. The visitor center displays a photo of British tanks on maneuvers around these neolithic stones! Appalling, yet kind of amusing. Since it happened during the timeframe of my novel, I included those tank tracks.
FF: What do you hope readers will take away from Midnight on the Scottish Shore?
I’m always reluctant to answer these questions, because reader messages have proven that God often plants different takeaways than I intended. I can say this is a story about trust and mercy and humility and the true nature of freedom—but something beautiful happens when a reader inhabits a story. The story and the characters now live in the readers’ minds, not mine alone. And the lessons learned become as unique as each reader.
FF: What do you love most about writing fiction set during World War II?
World War II offers an endless stream of story ideas, with the war’s inherent drama, ethical dilemmas, and very personal conflicts. I keep finding intriguing new aspects of the war to explore—and to challenge my poor characters.
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Midnight on the Scottish Shore
Sarah Sundin
Revell
Genres: Historical Romance
Release Date: February 4, 2025
ASIN: B0DH5PH4GH
Book Summary:
Cilla van der Zee has seen her beloved Netherlands overtaken by German troops. The only way she can survive the German occupation is to do the unthinkable. She must convince the Nazis that she can be an asset to them—as a spy in Britain. She soothes her conscience with a plan to abandon her mission and instead aid the Allies. But her plans are derailed when she is captured by Lt. Lachlan Mackenzie, who turns her in to be executed.
When British intelligence decides she is more useful alive than dead, Cilla is tasked with sending misleading messages to Germany from a lighthouse at Dunnet Head, Scotland. But the man she must work with is the same officer who recently arrested her.
As Cilla and Lachlan navigate the treacherous waters of wartime espionage, they must also confront their own suspicions and growing feelings for each other.
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