Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 thriller helped create the modern action thriller, a genre that sells millions each year and often features hitmen, conspiracies, high-level plots and a race against time. This is based around a real-life attempt on the life of General de Gaulle, which segues into a fictional follow-up plot. It opens with a famously ‘hooky’ passage of a man facing a firing squad and keeps up the pace with an unnamed English assasin, ‘The Jackal’, being hunted by French detective Lebel. A race is soon on to stop the General being killed.
You should read it because: Forsyth, an investigative journalist by trade, used the same methods to build up an intense sense of realism, and slotted his novel around real-life events to increase the tension and plausibility. It’s also a classic dual baddy/goody narrative. Although beware the power of the novel – it was an inspiration for the assassin who killed Yitzhak Rabin, and the man who tried to kill George Bush in 2005 – and also gave Carlos the Jackal his nickname.
Leave a Reply