The Day of the Jackal

Mystery and thriller

First published: 1971
Print length: 400 pagesImPress, 2002

Description

In spring 1963, an anonymous English assassin is hired to kill General de Gaulle. The contract goes to a highly skilled killer known only as the Jackal, a tall, blond Englishman with gray eyes. He is absent from the files of the world’s intelligence services, and even the people who employ him do not know his real name. The Day of the Jackal centers on this covert assassination mission as its deadline approaches. Frederick Forsyth builds the thriller around a dangerous professional whose secrecy and anonymity give him unusual freedom, while the possible success of his mission threatens to alter history.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Descriptive · Direct · Journalistic

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Detached · Suspenseful · Tense

Structure

Linear

Focus

Character · Mystery · Plot

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 3 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

Crime and punishmentIdentityObsessionPower

About Frederick Forsyth

Frederick Forsyth was an English journalist and novelist whose reporting experience shaped a long career in political and international thrillers. After working for Reuters and the BBC, he brought journalistic research, direct prose, and close attention to procedure into his fiction. The Day of the Jackal turns an assassination plot into a contest of planning, investigation, and institutional response, while The Odessa File follows a reporter probing the protection of former Nazis in postwar Germany. Across such books, Forsyth often builds suspense by showing how operations actually work: recruitment, reconnaissance, weapons, transport, intelligence, and political negotiation all become engines of narrative. The Dogs of War applies this method to a mercenary coup, and The Devil’s Alternative expands it to Cold War strategy and the threat of nuclear conflict. His characteristic scale ranges from the solitary specialist to governments and clandestine networks, with plots driven less by psychological introspection than by information, leverage, logistics, and the pressure of a narrowing deadline.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: ImPress
Language: English
ISBN: 9780762188666

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