The Day of the Jackal

Published in 1971, this thriller follows an English assassin hired by the OAS, after failed attempts on Charles de Gaulle, to kill the French president. Alternate chapters track the Jackal's false papers, weapons, and disguises, and the hunt led by deputy commissioner Claude Lebel as leaks, pride, and chance complicate the police work. The setting moves through Italy, France, and London in the early 1960s. The novel is a procedural of assassination and counter-assassination, not a political history of the Algerian war.

Bound in paper printed with a wrap-around design in red, blue and white. Red cut-out pictorial slipcase with black and gold printing. Dark blue endpapers.