Books › The Day of the Jackal
The Day of the Jackal
First published 1990 · 739 pages
A masterclass in procedural tension that turns meticulous planning into a breathless, ticking-clock countdown.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like watching a master watchmaker assemble a bomb. It is a masterclass in procedural tension, trading emotional interiority for a cold, journalistic precision that makes every forged passport and stolen license plate feel like a matter of life and death. The atmosphere is steeped in the paranoid, smoke-filled rooms of 1960s Europe, where the stakes are monumental but the focus remains microscopic. You are pulled into a relentless cat-and-mouse game, experiencing the chilling competence of a nameless killer and the desperate, exhaustive legwork of the detective hunting him. It is a propulsive, dread-soaked experience designed for readers who crave hyper-competent characters, historical espionage, and the suffocating thrill of a perfectly executed countdown.
- Mood
- tense
- paranoid
- cold
- high-stakes
- Tone
- clinical
- meticulous
- authoritative
- detached
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- the anatomy of a manhunt · professional obsession · cat-and-mouse dynamics · the fragility of power
- The writing
- Journalistic, precise, and unadorned, favoring procedural detail over emotional interiority.
- The arc
- Begins with cold, calculated intrigue and steadily tightens into a suffocating, breathless climax.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love hyper-competent characters, procedural thrillers, and historical espionage where tension is built through microscopic details.
Content notes
- gun violence
- political violence
- murder
About the book
In a class by itself. Unputdownable' Sunday TimesOne of the most celebrated thrillers ever written, The Day of the Jackal is the electrifying story of an anonymous Englishman who in, the spring of 1963, was hired by Colonel Marc Rodin, Operations Chief of the O. A. S., to assassinate General de Gaulle.
The Jackal. A tall, blond Englishman with opaque, gray eyes. A killer at the top of his profession. A man unknown to any secret service in the world. An assassin with a contract to kill the world's most heavily guarded man.
One man with a rifle who can change the course of history. One man whose mission is so secretive not even his employers know his name. And as the minutes count down to the final act of execution, it seems that there is no power on earth that can stop the Jackal.
Description from Open Library.
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