Behold a Pale Horse [Hardcover]

Franklin Allen Leib (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

Havana, 1963:
Rupert Justice Tolliver, a young Texan who boasts that he will one day be president, is being driven through the city when a bullet whizzes past his nose. The shooter, a professional Rhodesian assassin named Cobra, fired because he was ordered to. He missed intentionally, perhaps making the greatest mistake of his life. . . .

Washington, 2001:
After a career as a television preacher and a stint as Governor of Texas, Rupert Justice Tolliver is elected president by a razor-thin margin. Declaring a holy war, he calls the Army and Navy to action, releasing the U.S. military machine on all foes, foreign and domestic, that he considers ungodly. As the world teeters at the brink of the millennium, Tolliver's rule disturbs international financial markets, creating chaos worldwide. This causes wealthy men from all corners of the globe to unite in a conspiracy against the leader of the free world, and they begin the search for an assassin.

Cobra:
Brought out of retirement in the African vineyards, the sharpshooter is offered a handsome sum to do what he should have done so many years ago: shoot to kill. This time around, all should go as planned. Except there's one variable Cobra isn't counting on.

Clarissa:
The beautiful and ruthless First Lady. The real mastermind behind the rising tide of terror, Clarissa isn't above using sex to manipulate the men on both sides of the conflict. And if she has her way, the beginning of the next millennium will be an era of demagoguery, mayhem, and bloodshed.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Plunging inexorably toward apocalypse, this expertly layered thriller by the author of The House of Pain darkly foreshadows the forthcoming 2000 presidential elections. Opening in Cuba in 1963, the narrative follows the parallel careers of Cobra, a young Rhodesian sharpshooter who is sent by Castro to Dallas to assassinate JFK, and Rupert Justice Tolliver, a young Texan on the same Dallas flight, who dreams of becoming president. After fulfilling his mission, Cobra ducks his pursuers by joining the U.S. Marines and is sent to Vietnam. Meanwhile, Tolliver enters divinity school to avoid the war and eventually capitalizes on his charisma as a radio/TV evangelist to become governor of Texas. Surviving Vietnam, Cobra returns to Rhodesia and buys a large farm. Over the years, he fights the elements and struggles to keep his land by hiring himself out as a hit man for high pay, all the while following with casual interest the adventures of the sly, Bible-spouting Texan who finally becomes the first U.S. president of the new millennium. Soon after Tolliver is sworn in, a young woman stumbles upon documentation of a shady land deal manipulated to funnel money to Tolliver and his campaign. Meanwhile, once Tolliver takes office, it becomes obvious that the Texan--convinced it is his destiny to fulfill the prophecy of the book of Revelations--is quite mad. With poetic symmetry, a secret group of powerbrokers hires Cobra to execute the ultimate sanction, and the thriller echoes Forsyth's Day of the Jackal as it approaches an adrenaline-charged finale. Though Leib's prose is only workmanlike, his juicy treatment of political chicanery, sexual promiscuity, media hijinks, international intrigue and atomic brinkmanship makes for a gripping read. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Smartly told thriller by Leib (The House of Pain, 1998) about a presidential assassination and the brilliance of the assassin hired to do the deed. We first meet Cobra, a South African, in the early `60s, preparing to assassinate Castrothough he shoots the cigar out of leaders mouth rather than kill him. Captured, he is sent to Washington to be the second shooter to the unknown primary one who will kill Kennedy in Dealey Plaza. From the grassy knoll, he sees the primary's round go through the president's throat, then he himself shots out Kennedy's brain, drops his Italian rifle down a manhole, and escapes. But his fake passport is too shoddy to get him out of the country, so he joins the Marine Corps and is sent to Vietnam as a top sniper. After two years he's taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese but eventually winds up in South Africa owning his own farm. Meanwhile, in the States, Rupert Justice Tolliver, a fundamentalist preacher whom Cobra met in Mexico City, is on his way to becoming presidentand his wife, Clarissa, makes sure he wins. When Tolliver is elected and world events lead him into a naval standoff with the Russians over Cuba (recalling Kennedy and Krushchev eyeball to eyeball), it's time to assassinate the President and get the world settled down again. So Cobra is hired once more, by whom he never knows. Despite its melodrama, strong on authenticity throughout, especially about the fine points of rifles and assassinations. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312890648
• ISBN-13: 978-0312890643
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,475,721 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars First book I read by Leib and I am impressed, June 15, 2000

By 

Joe G. Steinbrunner "joegstein" (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Behold a Pale Horse (Hardcover)

This is a very good story and I spent about full time reading it until I was done. Cobra is the main character, a long distance shooter/assasin, but a good interesting fellow. I enjoyed the tie in to JFK and the life of Cobra (I would have loved more details, at least another 100+ pages more). Tolliver is the other main character and a man of problem that makes it to the White House. The only thing I did not care for was the book's layout, it started in 1963 for a few chapters than jumped to 1999 and while going to 2000+ it interspersed chapters filling in some of the years between. I like more sequential stories, but it still was very good and I highly recommend it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting political thriller that ties into JFK, December 28, 1999

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Behold a Pale Horse (Hardcover)

By 1963, the Rhodesian Cobra is an established assassin with Lumumba among his victims. His current assignment in Havana is to kill Castro, but he purposely misses shooting a cigar instead. When the Cubans catch him, Cobra explains that he intentionally missed. He proves his boast by reconstructing the shot using a "volunteer" from Texas, Rupert Justice Tolliver as the target. Cobra successfully demonstrates his abilities. The Cubans send him to meet J. Edgar Hoover's South Florida contact Fernandez who provides Cobra with his next job. In late November in Dallas, Cobra carries out his assignment. To escape the country, he joins the Marines.

Over the next three plus decades, Rupert becomes a TV evangelist and governor of Texas. Cobra buys a large farm in his homeland that he finances with an occasional hit. By 2001 Rupert is the president while Cobra continues to work his farm. Rupert believes that he is the world's savior and begins a religious war as described in Revelations. The international financial community panics and hires Cobra to kill Rupert. However, Cobra is unaware that the real brain behind the presidency is the First Lady and she has no compunctions to walk both sides of the conflict to gain what she wants.

BEHOLD A PALE HORSE is an exciting political thriller that keeps reader attention from start to finish. The story line never rests as the 1963 scenario ties back into the 2001 potential apocalypse. Though the characters are not going to gain any empathy, the audience will admire Cobra's chutzpah and gasp at Rupert's obsession with Revelations. Franklin Allen Leib had forged a triumphant tale that will send his fans searching for his previous novels.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Definite Page Turner!, June 16, 2001

By 

Melvin Hunt (Cleveland,, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Behold a Pale Horse (Paperback)

This is an exciting book. You have a hired killer who took part in the original Kennedy assasination. The other character is a Texas Governor named Justice Tolliver who moves to the Presidency. The hired killer named Cobra has an interesting biography and an impressive list of hits. The President and his first lady are as wild as they come. They have shady land deals, the President was also a draft dodger. This book has every kind of scenario that you could ask for. The plot is outstanding as well. This will be one of the better books that you will read this year. You will be wondering if Cobra is sucessful in his newest assignment. You this book. It is a thriller.