I had read Day of the Jackal a long time ago and even saw the movie.
A couple of weeks back I chanced upon the book again and started reading it in earnest and finsihed it off in One go..started at 10 in teh night and finished at 3 in the morning.
The plot is exceptional, without giving it away too much here it goes. It starts of with a failed assasination attempt on the life of the president of France.The culprits are caught and teh main accused is executed.stung by the failiure and also loss of morale the OAS ( a right wing french group comprising of hard nosed army guys ) try something different and hire an assasin called the ’’ The Jackal ’’ to finish of the president.
The exceptional writing of forsyth really puts a lot of life into the charecter of Jackal. as you move along you admire his meticulous planning and his tempermeant under pressure, you symphathise with him when things start to unravel, You hate him when he kills innocents standing in his way. and you feel very sorry for him in the end.
Also Forsyth has breathed life into the charecter of Commisionaire Lebel who gets onto Jackal’s tale with vengeance.Me as a reader was exceptionally impressed by the logical thinking and doggedness of this charecter
all in all its a fantastic read and a book everyone will enjoy a great deal.