The book "The Shoes of the Fisherman" by Morris West is a good fiction novel, sort of related to your comment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_West

Excerpt:

[ In an unforseeable literary coup, the book was published on 3 June 1963, the very day on which Pope John XXIII died.[2] The book reached No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller List for adult fiction on 30 June 1963, and became the No. 1 best-selling novel in the United States for that year, according to Publishers Weekly. ]