The Day Of The Jackal (English, Paperback, Frederick Forsyth)

The Day Of The Jackal is the story of how an unidentified assassin, called The Jackal, has been appointed to kill the President of France. With a determined detective giving chase, will The Jackal be able to complete his mission?

Summary Of The Book

The Day Of The Jackal, originally published in 1971, is a thriller novel. The book revolves around an English assassin who is only known as The Jackal. He is unknown to any secret service agency anywhere in the world, and has been appointed by Colonel Marc Rodin, Operations Chief of the O. A. S., a French paramilitary organization, to kill the President of France, General de Gaulle.

Set in the spring of 1963, The Day Of The Jackal is divided into three parts. The first part, Anatomy of a Plot, explains how this cold and calculating assassin agrees to murder the most heavily guarded man on earth, for a sum of $500,000. Readers will learn about the meticulous preparations that The Jackal takes in order to fulfill his task. The protagonist gets himself a British passport under a false name, and goes to Belgium to buy specialized arms. The second part of The Day Of The Jackal, Anatomy of a Manhunt, shows how Detective Claude Lebel tries to establish the assassin’s identity.

The Jackal enters France, and prepares to kill the President. The last and third part, Anatomy of a Kill, provides details about the man-hunt that is conducted to catch the criminal. Will The Jackal get caught, or will France lose its President?

The Day Of The Jackal revolutionized the spy-thriller genre. The author had interviewed gun makers, bodyguards, forgers, and even an assassin while writing this novel. In 1972, the book won the Best Novel Edgar Award, and was listed on BBC's survey The Big Read in 2003.

About Frederick Forsyth

Frederick Forsyth, born in 1938, is an English writer and political commentator.

He has also written The Veteran, The Fourth Protocol, The Cobra, The Dogs of War, Avenger, and The Fist of God.

The author studied at the University of Granada in Spain, and then joined the RAF as a jet fighter pilot. In 1961, Forsyth joined Reuters, and later became an assistant diplomatic correspondent for BBC in 1965. For the next two years, he was a war correspondent in Nigeria, after which he became a freelance reporter and author. In 2012, Forsyth was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger award by the Crime Writers Association. In his spare time, the author enjoys scuba diving and snorkeling.