Best Tasted Cold

We all know the story, recounted in book (Vengeance) and movie (Munich):after terrorists kill 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, Israel's Mossad spends years tracking down and killing those responsible. Now, turn back the clock. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell and his allies behead King Charles I and declare Britain a republic. A decade later, Cromwell is dead and the martyred king's son reclaims the throne. Charles II launches a manhunt to find and execute those who signed his father's death warrantsome 60 people in all. He largely succeeds. Charles Spencer'sKillers of the King (Bloomsbury) is no Restoration comedy—it's a sometimes grisly nonfiction thriller. /

CULLEN MURPHY