Plot Summary
The Day of the Jackal (1971), a thriller novel by English author Frederick Forsyth, follows an anonymous English assassin hired by a French paramilitary terrorist organization called the OAS to kill French President Charles de Gaulle. The entrepreneur embarks on a race against two detectives mandated by the French government, as well as by the English special services, to carry out his task. Widely considered one of the best detective novels of the 20th century, it received one of the genre's highest honors, the Edgar Award for Best Novel, in 1972. It is loosely based on an actual assassination attempt perpetrated against de Gaulle in the 1940s.
The Day of the Jackal is divided into three parts and an epilogue. The first part, “Anatomy of a Plot”, begins in 1962, the day after the failed assassination attempt on De Gaulle led by Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry. The attack was apparently motivated by De Gaulle's decision to grant independence to the Algerian state. After Bastien-Thiry's arrest, the French government retaliated against the OAS in a clandestine skirmish that it tried to keep secret.
After several attempts to repel the French secret services, the OAS decides that the only way to carry out its assassination is to hire an independent assassin unknown to the agency. Rodin, an OAS deputy, meets the assassin, who demands 500,000 in exchange for his services. The OAS accepts his conditions and gives him the code name "The Jackal". The remainder of Part I concerns the Jackal's complex preparations for the assassination. He takes on a false identity, obtains a British passport and travels to Brussels, where he pays a gunsmith to create a specialized sniper rifle. After obtaining false papers to establish his French identity, he flies to Paris and finds a place to stage the assassination. Meanwhile, French secret services capture Rodin, an OAS leader, but are unable to obtain the identity of the assassin. They task France's most prodigious detective, Claude Lebel, with finding this information.
The second part, "Anatomy of a Manhunt", concerns the French secret services' attempt to find the Jackal while concealing information from the public about the ongoing campaign to assassinate de Gaulle. Lebel has unlimited powers and resources to conduct his investigation. Someone suggests that he consult the archives of the British secret services, because the assassin could be abroad. He finds a possible suspect named Charles Calthrop. Meanwhile, another detective, Bryn Thomas, is given similar powers to find the killer. Unbeknownst to the French government, the wife of an Air Force colonel is spying for the OAS, constantly transmitting a stream of recent information to the organization. French agents raid Calthrop's London home and find his passport, deducing that he is traveling under a false identity. They approach the Jackal, but he is warned by the colonel's wife before they reach his hotel. The Jackal takes refuge with a woman he seduced earlier, then kills her and boards a train to Paris with a false secondary passport.
The third part, "Anatomy of a Murder", concerns the days preceding and including those of the Jackal's assassination attempt. Lebel has the security council's phones tapped, suspecting the presence of a mole. He discovers that the mole is the colonel's wife. Thomas uses a database of recently stolen passports to get closer to the Jackal's identity. On August 22, Lebel postulated that the Jackal would attempt the assassination on August 25, which commemorates the liberation of Paris during World War II. The minister fires Lebel, confident that he can take charge of the rest of the investigation. The Jackal hides in a gay bar, where he is taken home by a man whom he kills. He uses his apartment as a hiding place. On the 24th, the minister reinstated Lebel, but in vain. The Jackal pretends to be a paraplegic veteran and hides his sniper rifle in his crutch. As the Jackal gets into position, Lebel realizes his plan and rushes into the building in the company of a CRS agent. The Jackal shoots at the President but narrowly misses him as he leans in to kiss a veteran. The CRS burst into his room and was killed. Lebel enters behind him and kills the Jackal.
At the end of the novel, the Jackal's identity remains unknown: Special Branch bursts into Calthrop's apartment just as the real Calthrop returns from vacation in Scotland. Disconcerted, they bury the Jackal's body in an unmarked grave. The Day of the Jackal ends with this classic suspension of knowledge, rendering the mystery unsolved.
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