The Day of the Jackal by Frederick ForsythMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The year is 1963 and things are going badly for France as she is retreating from her colonial past, kicking and thrashing all the way. Algeria has gained independence and many French people are angry and bitter about the situation for French people who lived inside the North African nation. Now there is a new underground movement that wants to rid France of President de Gaulle's rule. The movement is known as the OAS. They decide to hire a contract killer to assassinate the head of state (de Gaulle) because of the Algeria crises.
To perform such a task, the OAS decide to hire a mercenary. A freelance killer that comes at a price, but is a thorough professional. A suave cold and merciless killer. Intricate in planning and careful to cover his steps as he prepares to do the mission. Thus the anonymous Englishman is hired.
No one knows who he is, except that he is Anglo-Saxon and all police forces keep finding are cold dead end trails, fake identities discarded for another and dead bodies. This is a real page turning cat and mouse chase to stop an assignation attempt by a cold-blooded killer.
Through Interpol, the British police and intelligence services are racing against time to help their French counterparts who desperately need to stop the assassin before he makes that killing shot upon President de Gaulle at any number of public functions.
Some of the tricks are mind-blowing as the assassin adopts all sorts of personas and disguises with French security always just out of reach. This is one of the best thrillers I have ever read and all set in 1963 retro France. Superb reading.
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