Customer Reviews

Shot

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

At this point, I have read all of Philip Kerr's in-print works with the exception of the Berlin Noir trilogy (which I have but have not yet read). "The Shot" ranks about average among those works; it's pretty good but doesn't have either the deepness of thought exhibited by "A Philosophical Investigation" or the sheer energetic violence of "The Grid."

The plot, such as can be described in a short review, has been adequately set forth in other reviews: essentially, the anti-hero, Tom Jefferson, is a former U.S. marine turned hitman who in 1960 accepts a contract from the Mob and the CIA to kill Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro. That is, until he learns that President-elect Kennedy slept with his wife. All of a sudden, Jefferson is off to kill Kennedy, and the Mob is in the strange position of having to work to protect Kennedy, whom they helped to elect by rigging the election in exchange for calling off the government dogs.

The fact that we know that Kennedy wasn't assassinated in 1960 actually doesn't affect one's enjoyment of the book, because Kerr does a good job of moving the plot along, and because his (for the most part) meticulous research about events in 1960 creates a feeling of verisimilitude. [Someone should tell Kerr that it's the Second Amendment, not the First Amendment, that allegedly guarantees the right to bear arms.]

One gets the feeling that Kerr's spark for writing his novels is something along the lines of "What if . . ." So, we have: (1) What if we could identify a physical characteristic linked to serial killers ("A Philosophical Investigation"); (2) What if there was a building run by a psychopathic supercomputer ("The Grid"); (3) What if there was a supercontagious blood-borne virus for which there was a cure, but the rich purposefully rationed the cure ("The Second Angel"); (4) What if I [Philip Kerr] tried to write a novel like Elmore Leonard ("A Five-Year Plan"); and (5) What if I [Kerr] tried to write a novel like Michael Crichton ("Esau")?

Along those lines, "The Shot" seems to have been inspired by two separate lines of thought: What if I [Kerr] tried to write a novel about an anti-hero like Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley; and what if I [Kerr] tried to write a Kennedy conspiracy novel?

"The Shot" was compelling enough that I read the last 150 pages in a single sitting. But if you haven't read Kerr before, I would suggest starting with "A Philosophical Investigation" or "The Grid," depending on your sensibilities.

I had high hopes for this work because I really enjoyed Kerr's "Berlin Noir" trilogy, but I was very disappointed with "The Shot." The concept was interesting: A paid assassin is contracted to kill Castro, but changes targets when a pre-presidential JFK sleeps with his wife, who happens to be a campaign worker for JFK. The dialogue in the book, particularly the conversations of the gangsters, rings horribly false - more like privileged writers concepts of how gangsters talk. Page after page has that over-writerly feel, if you know what I mean. When a book is really good, you are not really conscious of the writer. In this book, you can practically sense Mr. Kerr patting himself on the back for another great line. The main character, a hit man named "Thomas Jefferson" comes off as an extremely labored, mannered creation. Compare this character with "The Jackal" in Fredrick Forsyth's book, and you will see what I mean. One seems extremely believable and real, one seems like a writer's concept of a killer. I don't normally pick details, but the whole book turned silly for me when the author had a character "thumb back the safety" on a Smith & Wesson .38 revolver. This is kind of a classic writer's blunder that I didn't think any writer could make anymore, what with the advent of quick Internet research, but apparently it still happens. Revolvers do not have safeties. This alone would not have tanked the book for me, though. It was just kind of indicative of the essential falseness of the work.

Philip Kerr's latest involves Americas deadliest assassin Tom Jefferson. Jefferson is hired by the mob to kill Castro. After accepting money for the job, he happens across a secret recording of JFK having a go at his wife (who happens to work on JFK's campaign). This causes Jefferson to change targets. Due to his failure to follow through with the Castro assassination, the Mob now targets him.

The novel takes place in 1960 and '61 and has been researched real well. From the songs that were popular to the talk shows and movies (Psycho). The novel lacks suspense. We know no assassination takes place in '60 or '61. It also lacks a protagonist to cheer for. Most characters in the novel are crooked and corrupt. The reading was dry.

Philip Kerr's previous novels 'Esau' and 'A five year plan' were, in my opinion, much better books. As a thriller writer, I feel Philip Kerr has slipped a notch with this latest effort.

Recommendation...Library

A professional hitman hired by the mob to kill Fidel Castro gets involved in more than he asked for. The hit is sponsored not only by the mob, but also by Kennedy who wants to become the president and then let the mob run the Cuban casinos. The mob possess a film of Kennedy's sexual adventures and thus all are tied-in in this game. When the hitman finds out that his wife also was Kennedy's lover, he takes things into his own hands and goes after kennedy. One of Kerr's best books.

Philip Kerr has tackled disparate subjects during his writing career, each book hallmarked by meticulous research, and an evocative recreation of the milieu under consideration. "The Shot" carries on the tradition, the locations this time being the USA and Cuba during the Kennedy Presidency. Any description of plot would subtract from the enjoyment of this thriller, but suffice it to say that Kerr has taken an oft commented upon subject, and added quite an original twist to its ending.

It was my second Philip Kerr's book, and it was so good as the first one. He style, remember a mix of Michael Chrichton, with James Elroy. The story is great. Brings a new view, about Jonh Kennedy's death. This is a fantastic book. Every thriller's fan should read it.

Having been confined to a hospital room for the past week sans any good reading and also having inherited from a friend who doesn't know my literary tastes, what can best be said about "The Shot" by Philip Kerr, is what any one of the monotonic male characters might have said " ...more holes than an Emmentaler that went before afiring squad. An Emmentaler is one of those Swiss Cheeses that has holes in it because .. etc. etc. " Indeed, given the number of times Kerr steps aside to provide the reader with little known facts that have remained little known for a very good reason, sometimes reading this felt more like sitting in Cheers next to Cliff the postman than like reading a "thriller"!

Now I confess the genre of spy/crime/detective thrillers is not my bag. So when fate cast me and "The Shot" together, I felt I should give it a chance, meet it on its own terms. I think I did and I think it is on the terms it fails and badly. First Kerr rolls out what ought to have been an intriguingly diverse array of shady lawmen, Mafiosi, and lone killers but they all speak in exactly the same voice, with the identical vernacular mannerisms and, more regrettably, the same unbelievable inconsistencies in the things they know, say and do.

Character development? Not even fair to ask that, but it is fair to expect, well, characters, plural. I speak of the males -- all the women of course are stunningly gorgeous, with big chests but personalities flatter than the Mississippi delta.

Second and worse is the plotting. Mind you, Kerr had a fine idea ,even a courageous one, given the fictional and, more so non- and semi fictional traffic that has trampled the paths of JFK's assassination. The premise is of a much earlier plan to hit Kennedy, even before his inauguration and one that seems to be very "personal", caused by the President's overly active (and overly discussed) sex life rather than individual psychopathology, ideology, organized crime, big unions or the military-industrial complex. Interesting, but... It's what Kerr does with this idea that becomes maddeningly misguided.

We are taken into the mind of assassin, Tom Jefferson, who, we are supposed to believe is right up there with the Jackal himself in stealth and cunning. And yet, the dumb things he does and the equally dim actions of Jimmy Nimmo the supposedly equally wily cop tracking whose him , are rank amateurish. Example: the Mob-backed detective finds that an old military buddy of Jefferson's is in the gunsmithing business. Well guess who, out of all the gunsmiths you could call in America, Mr. Ingenious Assassin has called within the last week. Dumb?

But wait up for Dumber. The detective confronts the guy and totures enough information ouit of him to pick up the assassin's trail. Now he has to decide what to do with the informant. He worries the choice loike its brain surgery - let the guy live and send a message to the assassin that he's been fingered? Or kill him and supposedly quiet the guy? But it never seems to occur to him that if he does the latter, when the assassin calls back for his order of specialty bullets, he might just get spooked anyway to find the guy dead.This is, alas, not the only case where everyone including the author forget that killing someone definitely leaves its own message trail.

There are also period discrepancies, things thought about or said way back in 1960 that weren't common lingo for many years thereafter. . Examples: white people did not call each other "Bro'" in imitation of Afro-American vernacular back then. And I am quite sure that although gangsters often killed people from moving cars, these hits were not called "drive-bys" until the 80s.

Or for some really bad semantic incongruity how about one rough and tumble hoodlum named "Mothballs" Manzani whose description of a suspect is "rough looking....unshaven. Very not Palm Beach"

Very not Mafia!

There are just too many of these slips. Each time you hit one you get thrown a 1000 feet from any willed "suspension of disbelief." If you must read this, perhaps best to have your seat belt fastened. Better yet, give this hit a miss.

i'm beginning to think that thrillers like these should carry some kind of disclaimer. WARNING FROM THE LITERARY COUNCIL: do not get too excited. This material contains an ending which may disappoint. Because in almost every other respect, The Shot is not only Kerr's finest, most thrilling, best plotted and fascinatingly peopled work to date - it is a fine and worthy and exciting thriller in its own right. A "new take on the plot to kill JFK", The Shot takes you beneath the surface of the 1960 presidential election and the Cuban Crisis, providing a fascinating look at the mob, FBI, CIA and Cuban-related shenanigans going on at the time. In the middle of it all is professional killer Tom Jefferson (all his other aliases are president names too - nice touch!). Here, Kerr displays what seems to be an almost disturbing understanding of the lives, methods and motivations of professional killers. There are actually three sharply-drawn assassins in this book, each with enough depth, charisma and drawing power to carry a whole thriller on their own. That aspect of The Shot is outstanding - you get the sense that Kerr has either done a great deal of research or has a genius mind for creating believable and ingenious detail. But none of that can make up for the way I feel about The Shot having just finished it. Most of the action takes place between the latter part of 1960 and the beginning of 1961. And as everybody knows, JFK was assassinated in 63. So it's as you draw closer and closer to the last page, and it's still only January 1961, that you begin to get this sinking feeling that this isn't all leading where you hoped it might. And without giving away the end of the book, when everything resolves itself (in an extremely rushed fashion, I might add) the sense of disappointment is enormous. I can't help feeling that if somehow this book had been stolen from me and never recovered, somewhere around page 350, I might have gone on thinking it one of the best thrillers i'd ever read.

Kerr's WWII-era Berlin Trilogy (March Violets, The Pale Criminal, A German Requiem) is some of my favourite historical fiction, so I figured I'd give one of his more recent thrillers a chance. This one is set in 1960, mainly in Havana, Miami, New York, with side trips to Vegas and Chicago and takes place over the course of the Nixon/Kennedy election and the buildup to JFK's inauguration. Kerr weaves a fairly elaborate plot around the JFK assassination conspiracy mythos, involving a top assassin, the mob, Cuban intelligence, crooked CIA and FBI agents running amok, inept Secret Service, and a bevy of sexpots, building up to an attempt to kill Kennedy prior to the inauguration. There are two major, major reversals (ie. unexpected plot twists), and many reviewers are inexplicably revealing the first of these in their summaries. I will not, but suffice to say, it's these two reversals that keep the pages turning. Of course, we all know what happened in Dallas, several years later, and Kerr manages to produce an ending to explain that as well.

Some reviewers have complained that since we know the assassination doesn't take place, there's no suspense. Personally, I found that creating and building the suspense in the face of such knowledge is Kerr's most impressive achievement in this case. Much like Frederick Forsyth's "The Day of the Jackal," the reader is drawn into the world and methodology of the killer and those tracking him. Unfortunately, plot seems to be occurring at the expense of character. There's no one to really root for or care about, which is fine in a lot fiction, but doesn't usually work so well in thrillers. Not only is there no one to care about, there's scant characterization to begin with, the male characters all have the same tired tough-guy patter, and the women are exclusively characterized as sex objects (and not amazingly banal ones at that). Kerr's attention to cultural icons and detail, which was a wonderful element in his Berlin Noir trilogy, proves to be far less interesting when applied to America in the 1960s (perhaps because it is so much more familiar). When you combine these weaknesses with several linguistic anachronisms, and a total absence of the wonderful turns of phrase in his earlier work, you get the feeling this was a rather dashed off bit of fluff for Kerr.

The five stars here are for a well constructed, fun to read twist, on a topic most would consider exhausted.

This is my first read of this Author's work, but not my last. The JFK story is one that has been beaten well beyond death. When I first saw the cover, my thought was, "more garbage". I could not have been more wrong.

The book is not one that can be reviewed easily as the plot is so precise, well paced, and consistent, that any specifics would begin the guessing before you got to the book. In a sense this would be fine as the direction the book takes is not one you will have seen before, or would guess. General commentary, or a bit about the story would kill the fun. Many of the names in the book will be familiar from other JFK conspiracy theorists; Sam Giancana, Tony Accardo, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Segal, OSS, FBI, CIA, MIRR, but that is where the similarity ends. A talented mind can always find a new perspective.

The Author recreates the time down to the guests on specific talk shows, and popular television programming at the time like, "Mr. Ed", or movies that were playing like "Psycho". The dialogue at times is razor sharp, and the pace of the book will leave you missing at least one night of decent sleep.

An all around great read. Highly recommended!