In any case, this espionage thriller begins with a historical failed assassination attempt on Charles de Gaulle by the OAS, a right-wing terrorist group who weren’t happy with Algeria being granted its independence. I will only acknowledge the 1997 adaptation starring Bruce Willis to tell you to avoid it, if you value your IQ points. I should mention the book was turned into movies, and I believe Fred Zinnemann‘s 1973 adaptation, starring Edward Fox, is by far the best and most faithful to the story. In my opinion though, there was a novel published in 1971 which set the bar so high it takes a bit of a miracle for it to be reached again: Frederick Forsyth‘s The Day of the Jackal. Novels about hitmen, killers and assassins are about a dime a dozen these days, and I’m sad to say many of them seem to be low-effort attempts at cashing in on trends and shock values. At this stage, it’s probably too deeply ingrained in all our cultures and societies to be completely rejected… the alternative is to accept and study it. Assassination is a tale as old as Cain and Abel, and is one of the few things we’ve very much managed to accomplish consistently over the course of our civilization’s development.
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