Kirkus
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Novelist Meltzer and historian Mensch tell the story of a failed assassination of JFK. Having written three other books on attempted assassinations, the co-authors now turn their attention to a little-known episode in the political career of John F. Kennedy. The book begins on the day of the attempt in question, Dec. 11, 1960, in Palm Beach, Florida, where the former senator, now president-elect, was readying himself to take the oath of office and occupy the White House. As JFK exited his family estate with his wife and young daughter, an older man was waiting in a 1950 Buick sedan, “not a fancy or noteworthy vehicle.” The moment passed without incident (the authors go on to theorize as to why), even though the Buick was equipped with seven sticks of dynamite connected by wire to a small trigger mechanism, powerful enough to “blow up a mountain.” From this climactic moment, the authors shift backward in time, tracing the rise of the young JFK, starting with his heroic actions on an armed mobile patrol boat in the South Pacific during World War II. In alternating chapters, the book details the life of Richard Pavlick, the man in the Buick: From small-town New England, as a young man he had served briefly in the Army; now he was “full of grievances” and was known to his neighbors as a prolific complainer and writer of angry letters. Pavlick, “extremely anti-Kennedy and anti-Catholic,” became “intensely focused” on the Kennedy-Nixon election and was galvanized to act when Kennedy won. The authors, experienced writers of this blend of popular history and thriller, keep the chapters short and punchy, with cliffhangers at the end of each one. This brisk and vivid history of a 1960 assassination plot has the instincts of a thriller. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.