The Day of the Jackal
Ratings82
Average rating4.1
One of the best books that I have read..it the story of the cat and mouse chase between an assassin and a cop and at times the hunter and prey roles twist around.
Man, what can I say about this book! It's a journey. It is a journey where the reader will know how secret killers work, how international intelligence agencies work, how the geopolitics of Europe in the sixties were controlled. That is, they have emerged with great realism and detailing in the context of fiction. And simply, Forsyth's sharp writing will always hold the reader. And the second half of the book is like a roller coaster. All in all, The Day of the Jackal is a master piece thriller.
I read this a long time ago and have seen both versions of the movie several times. Fascinating all the way until that final burst from a machine gun.
A great little political thriller with some fun twists. The most interesting thing to me was looking up the real life hotels, tourist areas and exciting locations in and around France which were mentioned in the book.
Very enjoyable
I was ready to give up after about 50 pages, but am glad I continued. That first 50 felt cold and emotionless. Steeped in exposition that was of little interest to me.
Then all of a sudden the real story kicked in and it was masterful. The differing points of view all slowly converged together over the course of the book in shorter and shorter sections making it feel like the net was closing in on the jackal. Very clever and very effective.
This is not my genre at all, but I'm extremely happy I gave it a go. I'll certainly read more.
Executive Summary: Slow at times, but with a great finish. I liked but didn't love this one.
Audiobook: Simon Prebble is a great narrator. I liked him more in the last book I read by him, but he speaks clearly with good inflection and adds some voices into the mix. He was a good fit for this book making the audio a good option for this book.
Full Review
Apparently the real life “Carlos the Jackal” was given his nickname because this book was spotted on him. I'm not sure if that's true, but I had thought this was somehow related to him.
Instead it's a historical fiction/thriller about a real life group of French dissidents from the 1960s who hire a (fictitious) mercenary assassin to assassinate then French president Charles de Gaulle.
The book starts with a bit of a history lesson that I found a bit dry. It then goes into a lot of background about the dissident group (called the O.A.S) and France in the 1960s. Charles de Gaulle survived six assassination attempts, which is pretty crazy. I can see why Mr. Forsyth chose him/France as his backdrop. I probably wouldn't have appreciated the politics without all the background, but I still found it on the slow side.
In general, I found some parts of the book far too detailed for my liking. I'm not a huge crime buff. I tend to prefer my thrillers to be a bit more action oriented than this was. I think anyone who enjoys that kind of thing will find this story more enjoyable than I did.
The final third of the book where the plan of the Jackal was being executed while a massive man hunt to find and stop him was underway was a lot more enjoyable to me than all the setup and planning parts that take up the first two-thirds.
Overall, I thought this was a decent read, but wasn't quite as exciting as I had expected.
How often does the author reveal the end and still keep you engaged?
Seriously, early in the narrative, the reader is told how the story will end. Then, despite knowing better, we grind our teeth right to the finish.
Complex, but accessible. Detailed, while economical. Righteous fun, though ultimately dark and morose. It's no wonder this is heralded as one of the best apt-fiction novels available. Intelligence collection, counterintelligence, investigation, espionage, assassination plots... what more do you want?
