The Day of the Jackal

I chose this for authenticity. Newsday's review said it was "chillingly real" and "the reader himself seems to be traveling with 'the Jackal.'"

That’s because Forsyth, as a foreign correspondent working in Europe and Africa, knew assassins, mercenaries, and arms dealers, which allowed him to craft fantastic but believable characters, settings, and situations. Forsyth opens the novel with the depiction of a real assassination attempt, employs historical figures, locations, and details, then seamlessly weaves his fictional plot into this authentic world.

Forsyth reveals lives most of us can only imagine, and he shows that wall-to-wall suspense does not require… show more.

My personal pick not just for the best espionage thriller but for the best thriller period.

Forsyth’s spare, efficient prose is a joy to read and a masterclass in how to keep readers hanging on every word.

In this tale of a shadowy assassin sent to murder the French president, we learn everything we need to know about the Jackal not via clunky exposition or flashbacks but by the precise way he assembles his rifle.

In parallel with the assassin’s meticulous preparations, we see the French security services desperately striving to intercept him before it’s too late. This is the… show more.

It is rare for fiction to appear so completely plausible, but that is what Frederick Forsyth has intriguingly done with The Day of the Jackal. The combination of a brilliant storyline and an arresting narration make this novel one of the all-time best works in the intelligence/spy thriller genre. To me, it was hard to guess what next, such are the intricacies and twists in the plot. The tense contest between a hired killer and the French Intelligence is classic and awe-generating. What a mesmerizing book! You will read it of course, but chances are you will read it… show more.

The plot of this novel is simple: a dissident political organization hires an assassin to kill the President of France, Charles de Gaulle. Forsyth simultaneously depicted the intricate preparations and precautious taken by the assassin, and the desperate hunt to uncover who is behind the assassination attempt before it is too late. I enjoyed reading this because it provides insight into the thought processes and personalities of the hunter and the hunted. 

This book was a huge influence on me in terms of plot structure. Meticulously researched, it taught me the importance of priming your canvas – setting up the backdrop and backstory to create incredibly high stakes, so by the time Forsyth unleashes his protagonist it is totally gripping. A portrayal of the real-life assassination attempt on French President Charles de Gaulle instigated by a right-wing paramilitary group furious with the way he finally gave Algiers independence, Forsyth’s genius is the mix of historical fact and fictionalized psychology of the central anti-hero, a hired British mercenary. What I love about the… show more.

I’ve read The Day of the Jackal at least a dozen times, and I still find new inspiration. Forsyth created an antagonist akin to Hans Gruber in Die Hard—I nearly find myself rooting for him. Along with great characterization is some of the greatest plotting I’ve ever read. The book is tight, smart, and absolutely engrossing, not to mention gorgeously written.

When you want a novel that has the trappings of an action movie but feels elevated and takes its time, this book is it. Inspired by real-life events the story lays out a fictional scenario that nevertheless feels highly plausible (much like my own alternative history novel, The Day Lincoln Lost). The book has been wildly popular since its publication and it’s easy to see why once you pick up this page-turner.