One of the joys of a month of reading that begins without a pre-determined theme, is that I can pick up books at random browsing in the libraries, used bookstores, Little Library boxes, the New York Times Sunday Book Review, and my notebook of recomendations from friends.

“The Predicament” was one of the books recommended in the NYT’s year end Notable and Best Books of the Year issues under Thrillers.  I had read and loved his earlier novel, “Any Human Heart” almost 25 years ago and his more recent “Trio”, so I was eager to read this book as well.

It’s hard for me to summarize my feelings about it.  First of all, on a very basic level, it’s a spy story about a British travel writer who gets involved with British intelligence and embroiled in trying to stop the assassination of JFK when he visits Berlin in 1963.  Second, having read “The Day of the Jackal” a month ago in which a non-descript Parisian detective is charged with preventing the assassination of DeGaulle in 1963, I couldn’t help but make comparisons and even wonder about plagiarism, if not of words then of plot.  The assassination is foiled when the hero of the story, Gabriel Dax realizes at the last minute that the assassin is not the fall guy recruited for the hit, but a trained marksman in a window across the square—-the description of Dax’s killing of the assassin is almost exactly the same as what happened in Jackal.  This was especially ironic since Dax was accused of plagiarism in the course of this book’s plot.  Was Boyd giving us a wink, wink to his own stealing of Forsyth’s plot?  Finally, the events in the book (spoiler alert here!), point to the assassination attempt and only a few weeks later the actual assassination of Kennedy in Dallas as the work of a sinister collaboration between the CIA and the Mafia.

Reading this book awakened all of my unresolved feelings about JFK’s murder now more than 60 years ago.  Every Baby Boomer can tell you where he or she was when they learned of this tragic event that, in my opinion, began the end of the American dream that we are seeing played out today.  I’ve read Don DeLillo’s novel, “Libra” about the assassination that implicates dissident members of the CIA angry about JFK’s abandonment of the Cuban Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Mafia.  The Warren Report was clearly a cover up.  Next up is a book my college friends have been suggesting for years and which was sent to me by one of them, “Mafia Kingfish” which evidently makes a strong case for a CIA/Mafia hit on JFK.

What a world!!!  This is not Boyd’s best effort and not particuarly worth the time in contrast to the NYT recommendation.