An often engaging espionage tale that’s full of high-stakes suspense as the Cold War heats up.
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.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9798999204004
Page Count: 410
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.
The Medusa myth, reimagined as an Afrocentric, feminist tale with the Gorgon recast as avenging hero.
In mythological Greece, where gods still have a hand in the lives of humans, 17-year-old Medusa lives on an island with her parents, old sea gods who were overthrown at the rise of the Olympians, and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The elder sisters dote on Medusa and bond over the care of her “locs...my dearest physical possession.” Their idyll is broken when Euryale is engaged to be married to a cruel demi-god. Medusa intervenes, and a chain of events leads her to a meeting with the goddess Athena, who sees in her intelligence, curiosity, and a useful bit of rage. Athena chooses Medusa for training in Athens to become a priestess at the Parthenon. She joins the other acolytes, a group of teenage girls who bond, bicker, and compete in various challenges for their place at the temple. As an outsider, Medusa is bullied (even in ancient Athens white girls rudely grab a Black girl’s hair) and finds a best friend in Apollonia. She also meets a nameless boy who always seems to be there whenever she is in need; this turns out to be Poseidon, who is grooming the inexplicably naïve Medusa. When he rapes her, Athena finds out and punishes Medusa and her sisters by transforming their locs into snakes. The sisters become Gorgons, and when colonizing men try to claim their island, the killing begins. Telling a story of Black female power through the lens of ancient myth is conceptually appealing, but this novel published as adult fiction reads as though intended for a younger audience.
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593733769
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
