The Shot by
Philip Kerr
hbk out November 99
Published by Orion
at £12.99
For this reviewer's money, Philip Kerr's A Philosophical Investigation is one of the finest crime novels of this or any other decade. His Berlin trilogy is good stuff too. But his recent novels have been thrillers rather than crime books - and not particularly brilliant thrillers at that. The Shot is his latest effort. How does it measure up to its illustrious and not so illustrious predecessors?
The good news is that it contains plenty of criminal elements and characters. Tom Jefferson - "America's most dangerous assassin" according to the blurb - is hired by the mob to dispose of Fidel Castro, whose regime is seriously cramping their style in Cuba's casinos and hotels. Real life gangsters such as Sam Giancana appear in the action, as does Jack Kennedy. Whoa, hold on there. Jack Kennedy as in President Kennedy? That's right, although the novel is set in the months leading up to his inauguration in 1961. Jefferson - note the presidential name - is not all that he seems, even to the wise guys and the made men. Soon, for his own reasons, he's changed targets, making both gangsters and law enforcement agencies drop everything to find him before he fires the fatal shot.
If this sounds familiar, well spotted. What we have here is an alternative take on The Day of the Jackal, only in this novel there are two targets that we know didn't die in real life (at least not in 1960 or '61). As you'd expect from an experienced hand, Kerr's set-up is multilayered and full of surprises. It also takes several risks, not all of which seem sensible.
The scenes with Giancana and his associates contain dialogue that is lame in comparison with that of American masters such as Leonard and Ellroy. There is also a lot of standard thriller genre padding - technical details, prices of goods, the minutiae of food, weaponry etc etc. Frankly, we can live without this. A more serious criticism is that the characters fail to convince. Tom Jefferson is a shallow protagonist. Yes, there are cunning plot twists that require him to remain shadowy, but the reader needs to get involved with someone and neither the assassin nor the men on his trail are attractive or even interesting human beings.
So, all in all, a mixed bag. As ever with Kerr's books, there are plenty of stimulating ideas (though nothing like as many as in his earlier, more mainstream crime novels). The overall impression, though, is of a writer who's losing his way. Which, given the quality of much of his backlist, is really a bit of a tragedy.
The Shot by
Philip Kerr