The Shot

Philip Kerr

'Riveting... as shocking as it is brilliant' Daily Mail
'A cleverly contrived reworking of the Kennedy assassination myth' The Times
'A really terrific read' Literary Review

Darkly imaginative alternative history thriller from the global bestseller and author of the Bernie Gunther thrillers.

America 1960. In Washington DC John F Kennedy has just been elected President. In Havana Fidel Castro has been in office for a year and with Cold War tensions rapidly heating up and the Soviets leading the space race the thought of a Communist leader so close to home is already raising American blood pressure.

Anti-communist fever is rampant in the USA with a paranoid establishment seeing reds under every bed. Nevertheless the decision to snuff out the threat of Castro by hiring Tom Jefferson America's best assassin to kill him comes from an unusual quarter: the Mafia.

But Jefferson's very skillset that makes him the perfect man for this job also ensures he has no qualms in double crossing his criminal paymasters. Jefferson has no issue with Castro: his preferred target is someone much closer to home...

'Mind boggling ... keeps you guessing until the end' Sunday Express