Book Review: The Shot

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Shot     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Philip Kerr
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Thriller   Historical
Pocket, Apr 2000, $24.95, 374 pp.

In 1960 Coral Gables, Florida the mob, CIA, and the next president of the United States John Kennedy meet to discuss the removal of Castro from Cuba. The mob wants to regain the lucrative businesses they lost when Communism took over the island. The CIA wants to eradicate Communism from the hemisphere. The future President sees the expulsion of Castro as a means of paying back the mob for stealing the White House for him.

Everyone agrees that hit man Tom Jefferson has the right stuff to do the job and take the fall. However, Tom listens to a tape that the mob made of JFK and Marilyn Monroe sharing a romantic rendezvous, but the only problem is the woman with Kennedy is Tom’s wife Mary who soon turns up dead. Tom vanishes into the night with mob chief Giancana’s money and a revised plan. He begins stalking Kennedy not Castro.

THE SHOT is an exciting historical fiction that blends real events and sixties’ rumors into a taut political thriller. The story line is filled with action although non-baby boomers may tire of the era’s tidbits that flood the plot and anchor it to the decade. With real persona and the deadly Tom, Philip Kerr shows why his previous novels like ESAU and A FIVE-YEAR PLAN are so popular by reinventing the Kennedy assassination with a new intriguing conspiracy theory.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner