Well, I’m an armchair historian when it comes to the Civil War and the American West, but I do read my share of contemporary novels; the likes of Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, and then stuff by writers like James Patterson, Michael Connelly or Jeffrey Deaver. But these are simply for enjoyment. It’s the history I crave.
Anything like King’s stuff that brings in what I’d call the supernatural is something I avoid. Never have, never will have, any taste for that.
Good examples: Kipling's ghost stories like "The Wish House" or "Friendly Brook", and Donn Byrne's novels, especially Destiny Bay and Hangman's House. In all of those evil is evil, and good is good, and there's no mistaking the two. Good as a general rule overcomes. As one of Byrne's characters says, "Tom, you're forgetting just one element: the ultimate vast justice of God."
I haven't read many contemporary novels. The most recent thing I've read is A Prayer for Owen Meany, and I hated it. Thought it was contrived, mean-spirited, and way too liberal for me.
I love history, I learned to read on back issues of American Heritage magazine and wound up majoring in history in college. I still read all sorts, latest was the big book of George Catlin's Indian portraits with his notes on his various travels. Now that I'm doing cowboy action shooting, I'll have to get current on the West (my thesis concentration was on the American and British Civil Wars. Quite a contrast.)