Second paragraph of third chapter:
From one end of the country to the other banks were held up with pistols, sawn-off shotguns and submachine guns on an almost daily basis. Smash and grab raids at jewellers’ shops became so common throughout that period that local police forces had hardly finished taking depositions from the shaking and often bleeding jewellers and their assistants than they were called away to another similar case within their own manor.
I was inspired to re-read this by delving into Hurd and Osmond’s Send Him Victorious, published four years earlier but with certain similarities. It remains a classic read. Even though the reader of 1972 knew (the reader of 2026 may have forgotten) that General de Gaulle was not actually assassinated in 1963, it is a tremendous ride as the Jackal prepares and implements his plan, while the French and British authorities are perpetually a step behind. There are some good bits set in a very seedy Brussels as well. (Moved to a more picturesque Genoa for the film, I think.)
Forsyth’s very tight writing, based on the true crime journalism which he had also practiced, keeps the pace going very well up to the explosive finale. Incidental characters are sketched (admittedly sometimes caricatured) economically yet vividly. There is no mystery about what is going on, and no real mystery about what will happen at the end, but we still race through the pages to find out.
There are two significant women in the story, the Baroness and Jacqueline, both of whom are there for sex and playing a small role in the development of the plot. There is reference to the wars of Africa and conflict in the Caribbean, and to the Corsican mafia. The bad guys are the colonial reactionaries, but the good guys are the conservative rulers of France and Britain – de Gaulle and MacMillan (who both make personal appearances).
On re-reading, I did note that the authorities spend quite a long time chasing the wrong trail until they hit the right one, taking a step (checking recent British passport applications) that really should have been taken much earlier; and that the reactionary Algerian OAS have a number of lucky breaks (and one very unlucky one). But you don’t write great stories about normal events, and this is a pretty good story. You can get The Day of the Jackal here.
