Winston Churchill was only 20 when he met the man whom he credited, more than any other, with shaping him as a statesman and an orator. As Churchill wrote: “I regard his as the biggest and most original mind I have ever met. When I was a young man, he instantly gained my confidence and I feel that I owe the best things in my life to him.” That man was Bourke Cockran, a charismatic Irish-born Democratic Congressman from New York City, acclaimed by his peers as the greatest orator in the Gilded Age of politics. Following the death of Winston’s father, Lord Randolph in 1895, Cockran who as a widower, became the lover of Churchill’s mother, the beautiful American-born heiress Jennie Jerome, who persuaded Cockran to take her son under his wing. Churchill, Cockran, Randolph, Politics, British, Prime Minister, New York, Democratic Congressman, Young Life, Mentor, American

Winston Churchill was only 20 when he met the man whom he credited, more than any other, with shaping him as a statesman and an orator. As Churchill wrote: "I regard his as the biggest and most original mind I have ever met. When I was a young man, he instantly gained my confidence and I feel that I owe the best things in my life to him." That man was Bourke Cockran, a charismatic Irish-born Democratic Congressman from New York City, acclaimed by his peers as the greatest orator in the Gilded Age of politics. Following the death of Winston's father, Lord Randolph in 1895, Cockran who as a widower, became the lover of Churchill's mother, the beautiful American-born heiress Jennie Jerome, who persuaded Cockran to take her son under his wing.

By the spring of 1931 a conspiracy is underway in Germany to assassinate President Hindenburg and restore the Kaiser's son to the throne, threatening the peace of Europe. At the behest of her godfather Winston Churchill, the adventurous journalist Mattie McGary, a rising star in William Randolph Hearst's press empire, and her lover, Bourke Cockran Jr., a New York law school professor and former Army counterintelligence agent, get involved. A brutal struggle opposes the old Germany and the new; the reactionary industrialists backing Kaiser Wilhelm II versus the racist radicals behind the Nazis and their leader, Adolf Hitler. Winston Churchill is drawn into the fray. An epic quest to recover an ancient Christian artifact, the Spear of Destiny, is underway! The spear was used by Roman centurion Longinus to pierce the side of Christ to end His suffering on the cross. But the spear—long on display at Vienna's Hofburg Museum—is suddenly missing. Hitler wants it every bit as much as the Kaiser and Winston Churchill. Mattie travels to the Austrian Alps on a danger-filled search for the spear. When Cockran joins her, both their lives and their romance are in jeopardy because of the handsome and mysterious leader of her expedition who saves her life and seeks to seduce her. Will she find the spear and retain Cockran's love? Churchill, Hitler, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Eugenics, The Spear of Destiny, The Order of the New Templars, Anti-Semitism, Nazi

A string of strange deaths in 1932 leads Bourke Cockran, Jr., and his lover Mattie McGary to uncover a plot by Nazi scientists to conduct lethal experiments on American twins in order to create a master race. They confront an international conspiracy connecting Wall Street to Washington, DC; from Long Island's fabled Gold Coast to the marble corridors of the Barlow Palace in Munich, headquarters of the fast-rising Nazi Party; and finally to a sinister clinic hidden deep in the Bavarian Forest. The Gemini Agenda is a historical thriller, the third in the Winston Churchill trilogy. Keywords: Churchill, Hitler, American Eugenics, Josef Mengele, Otmar von Verschuer, Anti-Semitism, Nazi

“Weiland Herzfelde has absolutely reliable information that the Nazis plan a fake attempt on Hitler’s life which is to be the signal for a general massacre. The sources of his information are the SA in Dortmund and a tapped telephone conversation between Hitler and Röhm.” The Diaries of Count Harry Kessler, February 1933 Winston Churchill receives startling news from a German aristocrat in early 1933 after Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany. The aristocrat has learned of a plot to stage a fake assassination attempt on the new German leader that the Nazis will use as a pretext to declare martial law and liquidate their political opponents. Unknown to Hitler, however, his enemies within the Nazi party—the Black Front—are conspiring with renegade elements of his own SS to turn the fake assassination attempt into a real one. Churchill tells the American newspaper titan William Randolph Hearst of the fake plot and, together, they persuade Mattie McGary, Hearst’s top photojournalist and Churchill’s adventure-seeking Scottish god- daughter, to investigate. Mattie readily agrees in large part because exposing the fake plot may help her finally shed the unfortunate reputation she has in Germany as “Hitler’s favorite foreign journalist”. Soon after she leaves for Germany, Mattie’s fiancé, the American lawyer and former MID agent Bourke Cockran, Jr., also travels to Germany to help his publisher client, Freedom House, acquire the rights to Rear Area Pig, an expose of Hitler’s less-than-heroic wartime service. Once in Germany, both Mattie and Cockran find themselves in peril at the hands of the SS loyal to Hitler who will stop at nothing to keep Cockran from acquiring the book and Mattie from learning the truth about the fake plot. Threats to Mattie multiply when SS agents working for the Black Front attempt to coerce her into joining the real plot to kill Hitler. When Cockran learns the Black Front intends to kill Mattie along with Hitler at his alpine retreat, the Berghof, he reluctantly seeks the help of Reichspresident Herman Göring and Kurt von Sturm, a top Göring aide who is also one of Mattie’s former lovers. The one-time rivals for Mattie’s affection quickly conclude that there is only one way to protect Mattie. They must take out the Black Front snipers before they can assassinate Hitler. And time is running out… Keywords: Churchill, Hitler, Göring, Roosevelt, Plot, Assassination, Nazi, Conspiracy, Zeppelin, Autogiro

In the summer of 1929 Weimar Germany still has a secret military agreement with the USSR to develop new weapons beyond the Ural Mountains. Ultimately, both want to dismember the newly revived independent Poland, but to distract Britain from helping the Poles, the new Irish Free State is placed at risk by conspirators and arms dealers intent on fomenting an IRA coup d'état. Winston Churchill is about to travel to North America when the new Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald asks him to handle a secret assignment. The IRA intends to buy large quantities of arms in the United States and an SIS team will investigate. Churchill is to enlist American President Herbert Hoover to prevent the weapons from reaching Ireland. But Churchill has his own unofficial team gather evidence as well. Bourke Cockran Jr., a law professor and former military intelligence agent, is the son of Churchill's old Irish American mentor. Mattie McGary, Churchill's goddaughter, works for William Randolph Hearst. Attracted to each other, their tempers often clash as Cockran and Mattie follow a trail from New York to Los Angeles through Canada to discover who is funding the IRA and where the arms are assembled. But Mattie is also keeping secrets from Cockran, who has an agenda of revenge: to kill the leader of the IRA team who is responsible for the murder of his wife in the Irish Civil War. These plans interfere with foiling the arms shipment and an IRA plot to assassinate Churchill. And time is running out . . . Keywords: Churchill, Hitler, Weimar Germany, Irish Free State, IRA, Poland, Anti-Semitism, Nazi