The Shot: A Thriller [Anglais] [Relié]

Popular British author Kerr (A Five-Year Plan, etc.) skillfully weaves fictional intrigue and historical events in his new novel, a political thriller set in the early JFK years. At the center of the story is a Miami-based hit man who goes by the name of Tom Jefferson. He has been hired by mobster Sam Giancana and his Mafia buddies--who are eager to continue doing business in Havana--to kill Fidel Castro. But the plan hits a snag when, bragging about a deal the mob made with Joe Kennedy to provide Teamster support for his son's presidential campaign, somebody tells Tom about a tape that Giancana secretly made of JFK's trysts with Marilyn Monroe. Listening to the tape, Tom discovers that the woman in JFK's arms is not Monroe, but an eager JFK campaign worker named Mary Jefferson--Tom's wife. When Mary turns up dead, Tom disappears with the mob's cash to join rogue FBI agent Alex Goldman in devising a plan to shoot JFK in Harvard Yard. As Tom stalks JFK and the mob tracks Tom, Kerr produces enough double twists and triple crosses to keep even the savviest reader riveted. Although a surplus of period detail sometimes slows the novel's pace, Kerr's Cuba steams, his Vegas glitters and his New York buzzes in what is, overall, an engrossing and well-written conspiracy thriller. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Kennedy administration's early comparison to "Camelot" was perhaps more apt than we knew, because John Kennedy has now joined King Arthur as a figure more legendary than real. He emerges here as a robust young champion of the American dream and the target of a professional hit man with roots in Cuba and friends in the Mafia. Kerr paints a stunning portrait of this energetic and corrupt era, masterfully weaving a compelling tale that presents historic events in a context that lends greater insight into Kennedy's inevitable demise. Narrator George Guidall's performance is flawless; his subtle accents and exquisite timing provide a perfect resonance for this remarkable work. Very strongly recommended. Ray Vignovich, West Des Moines P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

The stock character of the thriller, the assassin, stalks quarry in Kerr's new intrigue. After demonstrating in the opening scenes his skills as a hired gun by knocking off a fugitive Nazi, assassin "Tom Jefferson," who masquerades under presidents' names, receives a contract for Fidel Castro's head. This is 1960, and Kerr bulks up his yarn with descriptions of the places Jefferson cases on his mission: Las Vegas, Havana, Miami, New York. The itinerary indicates his sponsors: mobsters Sam Giancana and Johnny Rosselli. Kerr fills out the get-Fidel team roster with CIA-types and crooked FBI agents, and the plot percolates until one of the mobsters cheerfully entertains Jefferson with a tape of JFK making merry with, not Marilyn Monroe as Jefferson expects, but Jefferson's wife. When his wife is found dead, Jefferson immediately absconds with his advance on the Fidel contract. An incensed Sam Giancana orders his minions to find Jefferson. Meanwhile, author Kerr flips the plot 180 degrees, disclosing outright that Jefferson, assumedly an aggrieved husband redirecting his assassin's ire from Fidel to JFK, is really in the pay of the Fidelistas. The last laps of Kerr's tale run off automatically as Jefferson sets up his sniper's nest in Harvard Yard, patiently waiting for his well-guarded target to amble through the crosshairs . . . but Kerr reserves a final plot twist that reviewing protocol forbids divulging. Fidel-JFK conspiracies may be shopworn topics, but Kerr reworks the material with sufficient surprises for his fans. Gilbert Taylor

Castro and JFK are targets of dueling conspiracies in this downbeat tale, a thriller suggesting that the no-good have already inherited the earth. It's 1960, and John F. Kennedy has just won his narrow victory over Richard Nixon in an election rigged, it seems, by mobster Sam Giancana. Naturally, there's a quid pro quo involved. Kennedy, we're told, has promised to call off the assorted investigative bodies nipping at the heels of organized crime. All along, however, there have also been ongoing, very sub rosa, negotiations between Mafia crooks and CIA spooks. The mob nostalgically recalls those halcyon days when wide-open Cuba was a cherished money-machine. For its part, the CIA yearns for a Cuban government that knows its place (subservient) with regard to the US. Both groups detest Fidel Castro and have concluded that eliminating him is a necessity. Enter Tom Jefferson, whose presidential name is ironically at odds with the creepy-crawly nature of his vocation. Tom is a no-holds-barred mercenary, born to killing the way others are to the hurling of baseballs and as accepting of his ``talent'' as world-class athletes are of theirs. (``Tom would have put a bullet through Walt Disney's head if someone had come up with the twenty-five grand.'') The mob hires him to hit Castro, but before he can implement his elaborate plan a nugget of unexpected and inflammatory information leads him to switch targets. Suddenly, Tom's hunting JFK, which means that his erstwhile employers now have to hunt him. A rigged election costs big bucks, after all: can you blame Giancana and company for wanting to enjoy the good of it? Kerr's material has always been fairly bleak (Esau, 1997, etc.), but this slog through the Slough of Despond is particularly grim: you meet only the unredeemed, the unrepentant, and the unrestrained.-- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Sunday Telegraph Clever and accomplished...often very funny.

The year is 1960. Psycho is playing in movie houses. Business is booming at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Club. And on black-and-white television sets, America is watching the Nixon-Kennedy debates. While the world turns, some people share a staggering secret: the Mob, the CIA, and the next president of the United States are all in bed together with a hit man and a plan -- to kill Fidel Castro.

Tom Jefferson kills for a living, and he's very good at his job. Fresh off a one-hundred-and-fifty yard takedown of a Nazi in Buenos Aires, Tom has now walked into a room full of wise guys and Company men in Coral Gables. The mobsters want Cuba back. Presidential candidate Jack Kennedy has promised they'll get it. Because Mob boss Sam Giancana has fixed the November election, he knows JFK will be in a position to deliver. And because the Mafia has incriminating tapes of Jack's sexual escapades, they know he'll keep his promise.

Tom is the man they all want for the shooting of Castro. And he couldn't care less what his clients' motives are or why. Tom has a good life, a beautiful wife, and the perfect fall guy for the Castro hit. But as Tom gets ready for his trip to Cuba, a corrupt FBI acquaintance lures him to a safe house where he's exposed to explosive information, Now, the perfect hit is turning into the perfect nightmare for the Mob, the CIA, and the United States. That's because cool, murdering Tom Jefferson has gone missing -- and the word is out that he's no longer gunning for Fidel Castro, but for Jack Kennedy....

From the brilliant mind of Philip Kerr, THE SHOT is a wild roller-coaster ride through the cultural, political, and social landscape of the 1960s -- a mesmerizing thriller that elevates conspiracy theory into a hugely entertaining art form and sheds an eerie light on the events in 1963 Dallas. With its cast of fictional and real characters -- icons from DiMaggio to Monroe -- Kerr's masterful new novel captures a Cold War, black-and-white society on the verge of a decade of dizzying, confusing Technicolor.

Philip Kerr is the author of eleven wildly imaginative and acclaimed novels. Named one of Granta's "Best Young British Novelists," his works include Esau, which has been optioned for a major motion picture by Disney; A Five-Year Plan, which was bought for a major motion picture by Tom Cruise; and The Second Angel. Mr. Kerr lives in London.