The Shot

1999

The year is 1960. PSYCHO is playing in movie houses. Business is booming at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Club. And on black-and-white television sets, America is watching the Nixon-Kennedy debates. While the world turns, some people share a staggering secret: the Mob, the CIA, and the next president of the United States are all in bed together with a hit man and a plan—to kill Fidel Castro.

Tom Jefferson kills for a living, and he's very good at his job. Fresh off a 150-yard takedown of a Nazi in Buenos Aires, Tom has now walked into a room full of wise guys and Company men in Coral Gables, Florida. The mobsters want Cuba back. Presidential candidate Jack Kennedy has promised they'll get it. Because Mob boss Sam Giancana has fixed the November election, he knows JFK will be in a position to deliver. And because the Mafia has incriminating tapes of Jack's sexual escapades, they know he'll keep his promise.

Tom is the man they all want for the shooting of Castro. And he couldn't care less what his clients' motives are or why. Tom has a good life, a beautiful wife, and the perfect fall guy for the Castro hit. But as Tom gets ready for his trip to Cuba, a corrupt FBI acquaintance lures him to a safehouse where he's exposed to explosive information. Now, the perfect hit is turning into the perfect nightmare for the Mob, the CIA, and the United States. That's because cool, murdering Tom Jefferson has gone missing—and the word is out that he's no longer gunning for Fidel Castro, but for Jack Kennedy...

Critical Praise

"A brilliant thriller... cool complex... the prose is taut, the action well-paced... to read it is to be back in Havana and the U.S. in 1960... The experience is closer to time travel than Michael Crichton could ever hope to come." ~ The Observer

"Riveting... as shocking as it is brilliant... Kerr's portrait of a morally corrupt society is so convincing that it leaves the reader wondering again about the actual assassination of Kennedy... as good as anything Kerr has written." ~ The Mail on Sunday

"Fiction which reads like faction, with a plot which delivers brilliantly engineered surprises... Perfectly judged period detail. Enough excitement to leave you feeling limp. A really terrific read." ~ The Literary Review

"Britain's new state-of-the-art thriller writer... Kerr keeps the plot twisting admirably... full of snappy dialogue and sharp detailing." ~ The Times of London

"Mind-boggling... keeps you guessing until the end." ~ Sunday Express