Stokes offers a historical thriller about a plot to sabotage Winston Churchill’s funeral.

It’s 1965 and Churchill, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, is near death. As the nation, and much of the world, prepares to mourn him, some nefarious elements see an opportunity: The funeral will certainly attract powerful figures from all over the world, and it creates a fine opportunity for chaos—or so goes the thinking of some leading members of the KGB. The Cold War is raging, and it’s spawned a plan in the Soviet Union called KOBA, which involves placing explosives in Churchill’s coffin. They would be set off during the service, killing “many, many others in the church,” and after the initial attack, “long-dormant agents provocateur…would launch an orchestrated wave of precision bombings and assassinations” all over the world. It may sound like a somewhat bizarre way to kick off an operation, but Soviet spies have long been developing assets in other countries for a situation such as this; they include leftist sympathizers in Northern Ireland, who are “particularly susceptible to recruitment” by the KGB. It’s an ambitiously sinister plan, but it’s not one that goes completely undetected. When suspicions regarding the funeral ceremony are brought to the attention of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, he takes action: Not only does he decide not to attend the memorial services, but he also consults former CIA director Allen Dulles, who, along with many other government operatives, recognizes the seriousness of the situation, which could easily spiral out of control.

The story begins with a rather bland speech from 1960s-era Prime Minister Harold Wilson (“We are on the threshold of an extraordinary moment in the history of the realm”); a bit later on, there’s a similarly unexciting flashback to Churchill’s final public appearance in 1964, in which a woman unnecessarily explains to her young daughter, “Sweetheart, that is Sir Winston Churchill and his wife, Lady Churchill.” Nevertheless, as the pages turn, so does readers’ anticipation regarding the wild spy mission, which involves a large cast of diverse characters; they include a couple in the U.K. that “had dedicated themselves to Soviet intelligence for nearly three decades, their commitment unwavering despite upheavals and betrayals,” as well as a frazzled American spy who, before the threat of KOBA came to the CIA’s attention, had been living a very unhappy existence in Rome. The lively mix of real-life historical figures and Stokes’ fictional creations keeps events moving briskly along, and that includes the action scenes; in one, a character makes quick work of his adversaries by firing “three shots with great poise and precision, dropping all three men in less than two seconds.” And, of course, there’s always the chance that world-changing fiascoes will occur if the plan actually succeeds. The potential for such chaos will give readers plenty of good reasons to stick with the novel all the way to its conclusion.

An often engaging espionage tale that’s full of high-stakes suspense as the Cold War heats up.

Stokes’ (How to Keep Calm and Carry On, 2014, etc.) crisp work of historical fiction animates the most sensational homicide trial in the criminal annals of Oklahoma.

It’s a familiar story. A middle-aged man falls in love with a much younger woman, and they carry on for years, until stronger passions, such as the desire for power and fame, conflict with what passes for love. It’s worth noting that the middle-aged man in this true story was “the Oil King of Oklahoma,” Jacob “Jake” Hamon, slated to be a member of President Warren Harding’s cabinet until his megalomania and other character failings derailed his ambitions and ended up costing him his life. Hamon was 37, and his paramour, Clara Smith, was just 17 when she came to his attention. Never mind that he was a prominent Republican and a married man with two children, Jake installs his mistress in a hotel suite in the Oklahoma town of Ardmore. Clara, for her part, is no wide-eyed ingénue , exploiting Hamon’s riches to pad her own purse. Eventually Jake’s megalomania kicks in, and he dumps Clara for political gain only to have her fatally shoot him. Stokes’ tightly paced narrative keeps humming even when it’s focused not just on the sensational crime, but all associated players as well. Especially impressive is the nuanced character development—there are no uniformly good or bad guys here; even Jake’s long-suffering wife exploits his death to raise her own social standing. Despite a lag in the action toward the end—when the story focuses on the aftermath of the shooting and Clara’s 15 minutes of fame—it’s a revealing exercise in the way public opinion can make or break one person’s fortunes. A relevant lesson in today’s hashtag-driven pop-culture world.

A potent, nearly perfect brew of politics, murder, mayhem, and mystery.

In this impeccably researched spy novel, a radio personality hunts for the answer to one of the 20th century’s biggest unsolved mysteries.

Templeton Davis, a respected talk radio host, is a happy man. Between his lucrative day job and a side job writing popular books about politics and history (as well as the occasional spy novel), he keeps his active mind busy, even if his house is lonely in the wake of his wife’s death. Then one of the radio engineers digs up a mysterious leather satchel in his Virginia backyard and asks Temp to take a look at it. The satchel bears a set of initials that immediately pique Temp’s interest: H.A.R.P. Back in his personal library, Temp researches the mysterious initials and recalls that they belong to “one of the most famous spies in history,” Kim Philby, a British spy who was recruited at Cambridge University and ultimately defected to the Soviet Union. Temp examines the satchel’s contents and discovers not only a camera, tripod and journal, but a “one-time pad” used to decipher coded messages. Temp can’t understand the coded messages on his own, but fortuitously, he hosts a retired CIA employee on his show who explains how one-time pads work. Once Temp begins to break the code, he realizes that he’s on the verge of unlocking some of the Cold War’s greatest secrets, including the identity of a Soviet spy with the code name Bunny. But will Temp be able to uncover Bunny’s secrets before he’s killed by forces intent on keeping those secrets buried? Stokes skillfully interweaves scenes from the Cold War era with Temp’s present-day investigation, which takes him from New England to England and back again. Occasionally, the fast-paced adventures are sidetracked by too much description. When Temp and his production team travel to Stowe, Vt., so that Temp can make a presentation to the Ohio chapter of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, the author spends page after page describing Temp’s preparation for the speech, his time in the green room and the speech itself. This digression and others don’t advance the story, and they aren’t particularly revealing, either. Also, because the research is so thorough and the voice so authoritative, it’s especially jarring when errors arise, such as a character who has a “flare” for language.

This wide-ranging spy thriller needs a little tightening if it wants to become as powerful as a Soviet assassin.

Account of a highly publicized 1926 murder in Fort Worth, Texas, and the trial of accused killer J. Frank Norris, a fiery fundamentalist preacher.

Norris, whose Fort Worth church reputedly attracted more parishioners than any other in the United States during the 1920s, preached a gospel of hatred against African-Americans, Catholics and other targets. Using a newspaper he founded and a radio station, he reached audiences in a similar manner as Jerry Falwell decades later. Regularly inserting himself into controversies about the direction of Fort Worth government and business, Norris collected enemies and friends with equal aplomb. A lumber tycoon named Dexter Elliott Chipps became one of the enemies. One day in 1926, Chipps, known for his drinking, womanizing and large physical presence, called Norris at church to announce he would be walking over for a talk. When he arrived, Chipps apparently warned Norris to withdraw certain criticisms of Fort Worth leaders. Claiming to fear for his life, Norris pulled a gun and shot the unarmed Chipps dead in the church office. The criminal trial moved from Fort Worth to Austin because of prejudicial publicity. Journalists from around the nation and world covered the trial, which centered on the question of whether Norris had killed Chipps in self-defense. The jury acquitted Norris, who then remained active in fundamentalist church circles and right-wing political circles until his death in 1952. Sharing the spotlight in the narrative are the Chipps family members, church employees and congregants loyal to their minister, Fort Worth social and political big shots and well-known lawyers on both sides of the case.

A pistol-packing preacher stands trial for murder in this absorbing true-crime saga.

The Rev. J. Frank Norris, pastor of Fort Worth’s First Baptist Church, was one of the most famous clergymen of his day, a fire-breathing fundamentalist who—from his pulpit, newspaper and national radio show—railed against drink, Darwin, Catholicism and a slew of local sinners. (He titled one of his sermons: “Should a Prominent Fort Worth Banker Buy Expensive Silk Stockings for Another Man’s Wife?”) Given his combative brand of Christianity and perpetual eagerness for a fight, people weren’t surprised one day in July 1926 when news spread that wealthy lumberman Dexter Chipps had shown up in Norris’ office threatening to kill him, or that Norris had promptly shot Chipps dead. Norris insisted that the deceased had made a menacing “hip-pocket move” as if reaching for a concealed weapon (none was found), and that the preacher had been targeted by a conspiracy that included a shadowy cabal of Catholics and city leaders. (Norris had been feuding with them over his taxes and allegations about the mayor’s womanizing.) Norris’ enemies countered that he had killed out of a cold-blooded orneriness unbecoming a man of the cloth. The author’s rollicking but incisive narrative follows the case from its roots in years-old personal vendettas through its culmination in a media frenzy and courtroom drama that captivated America. In this vivid portrait, Norris is a larger-than-life figure but also a troubling one—a canny, charismatic man who allied himself with the Ku Klux Klan and shaped his followers’ paranoia and unfocused sense of grievance into a rabid personality cult. (Thousands of new members flocked to his church after the killing.) Stokes’ prose is a bit unpolished, but his exhaustively researched account is both a lively read and a window into the seething social and religious antagonisms of the Roaring ’20s.

A fascinating study of a Texas-sized minister and the fraught fundamentalist culture he bestrode.