The Fourth K (Mass Market Paperback)

by Mario Puzo (Author) "OLIVER OLIPHANT WAS one hundred years old and his mind was as clear as a bell..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, Francis Kennedy, White House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The latest from the author of The Godfather is a surefire success, a political novel that starts with a terrorist assassination of the pope on Easter Sunday, a deed that sends global aftershocks to jolt the power strongholds around the world, from the palace of the sultan of Sherhaben to the White House. The U.S. president is charismatic Francis Xavier Kennedy, scion of the famed and ill-fated clan. Still mourning his dead wife, Kennedy turns his energies to the country's betterment, forging an idealistic "new social contract." But Kennedy is also a target of the terrorists, whose mentalities the novel deftly probes: Romeo, a "Christ of Violence," needs to atone for his pampered upbringing; Yabril, a fierce Arab, privately thirsts to smite--like the angel Azazel--the president's daughter Theresa. After an appalling crime is committed, Kennedy coldly vows to bomb Sherhaben off the map, despite the American fortunes invested there. His cabinet and the wily, aged members of the Socrates Club--who control grain, real estate, oil, the media and Congress--plot to impeach him. Random acts of violence by young Americans (e.g., naive MIT scientists who plant a mini-atom bomb in Manhattan) enliven and multiply the dangers. Within the male power hierarchy, capable women like vice-president Helen Du Pray calculate their moves. Astute characterizations, vivid drama and Puzo's shrewd analyses of the paradoxes of evil detonate a top-notch thriller.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
“[A] CLASSIC PAGE-TURNER . . . THE FOURTH K HAS ALMOST EVERYTHING YOU LOOK FOR IN A THRILLER.”
–The Washington Post

“FAST-PACED, SATISFYING . . . FINE ENTERTAINMENT.”
–Los Angeles Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (November 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345476735
• ISBN-13: 978-0345476739
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #431,589 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Puzzo's finest: Plenty of political and international intrigue. , December 15, 2006

By	Rocco B. Rubino "Rocco R." (Ohio) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Francis Xavier Kennedy, nephew of the slain JFK/RFK has ascended the presidency due, in no small part, to his family name, his political instincts, and his near-adolescent idealisim.

During Holy Week it seems as if the world is falling apart at the seems. The Pontiff has been assasinated, and FXK's daughter has been kidnapped by Muslim extremists and then executed in cold blood.

FXK devises a response that he feels is commensurate with the crimes committed, and one that is befitting defending the honor of the most powerful nation on earth. There is one little snag; an imperial congress, motivated purely by greed,political opportunism, and a visceral hatred for the CINC,is poised to declare him non compus mentis and have him impeached.

An incident of 9/11 proportions takes place in New York that changes the entire dynamic of this political opportunism/intrigue and FXK adresses an emergency session of a join-session of Congress, and is spared the ignominy of being removed from office. Puzo's prescience here is uncanny; a nation in crisis after a terrorist event, a zealous President/Justice Department eager to preserve the Union, to the point of using draconian measures...it is all there, prophetically so. Eerie.

Puzo spins a yarn like no other. His scenarios/character; development/plots, sub-plots are woven into an exciting, breathtaking tapestry that takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride; the thrill of a lifetime. There are so many twists and turns it is likely to give a less engaged reader the literary equivalent of motion sickness. Dialogue is crisp, sometimes raw, and cynical. The stuff a poltical thriller is made of.

Some have decried this work as being a little contrived, but Puzo has a knack for tying up all of the loose ends and leaving the reader satisfied after he/she has read the novel.

A first-class piece of literature.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much stuff going on at once, July 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fourth K (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book, but there just seemed like there was too much weird stuff going on to really believe or follow. It also seemed a little far-fetched at times. I liked the insite that Puzo gave when describing the criminals and the president of the US. I would describe this book to my friends as a decent read, but would not recommend.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Amazing prescience, May 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fourth K (Hardcover)

I gather that Puzo wrote this book long before 9/11. The narrative is spooky in that it parallels that event and the conspiracies that followed. The concern for loss of civil rights; the never ending central factor of the Israel-Palestine conflict; the bombing to rubble of a middle east capital city.
All of this, read in light of what followed, would speak to Puzo's grasp of international skulduggery, long before most of us anticipated the coming tragedies. On this basis, alone, it is well worth reading.