The shot A thriller

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

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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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.