CAMELOT’S COUSIN: The Spy Who Betrayed Kennedy
“In this impeccably researched spy novel, a radio personality hunts for the answer to one of the 20th century’s biggest unsolved mysteries.” – Kirkus Book Reviews
“Stokes has a good story and he tells it well. The narrative comes across as conversational, which is a pleasant change from the business like detachment of most omniscient story tellers.” — Examiner.com
WHEN A DAD tries to dig a hole in his Northern Virginia yard to bury the remains of the family pet, he chances upon something buried years before—a mysterious briefcase. Its contents include a journal with cryptic writing. The father turns to his friend—and boss—Templeton Davis, a former Rhodes scholar and popular national radio talk show host, for help figuring out what he’s found.
They soon realize that they are in possession of materials that were hidden more than 60 years earlier by a notorious deep cover agent for the Soviet Union—Kim Philby. And buried with the materials were clues to a great secret—the identity of someone else, the most effective spy in the history of Cold War espionage.
Long a mere footnote in history, the story of this man’s treachery reaches the pinnacles of power and geopolitics. It’s a story that begins just before the Second World War breaks out and reaches the depths of the Cold War that followed.
The trail leads to a picturesque town in Vermont, the streets of New York City, the corridors of power in Washington, DC—but most importantly, Oxford, England, where Davis realizes that the beautiful city of spires on the Thames was once also a city of spies.
The Oxford spies may never have reached the level of public notoriety of the Cambridge spies–but clearly the story had never been completely known—or told. And investigating British spies was a very dangerous mine of detail in which to dig, a fact borne out by a couple of suspicious deaths left in the wake of Templeton Davis’ travels.
Davis discovers that at the moment when the world came closest to unparalleled disaster, secrets were being betrayed at the highest levels. He would also come to understand that what he had learned connected to a time of great sorrow for mankind. This is ultimate Kennedy assassination conspiracy story.
At a crucial moment, Templeton Davis quickly develops a bond borne of necessity with a beautiful young woman from Russia—someone with her own secrets. And when what she knows is combined with what the famous broadcaster has learned, the two unlikely heroes find themselves in grave danger, yet poised to rock the world.
Camelot’s Cousin is a skillfully crafted example of both espionage fiction and historical fiction. And it will leave the reader wondering if it could have really happened.
DAVIDRSTOKES.COM 