The Day of the Jackal
About this audiobook
Now a Peacock series adaptation starring Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne
One of the most celebrated thrillers ever written, The Day of the Jackal is the electrifying story of an anonymous Englishman who, in the spring of 1963, was hired to assassinate General Charles de Gaulle.
France was infuriated by Charles de Gaulle’s withdrawal from Algeria, and there were six known attempts to assassinate the general that failed. This novel dramatizes the seventh, mostly deadly attempt, involving a professional killer for hire who would be unknown to the French Police. His code name was Jackal, his price half a million dollars, and his demand total secrecy, even from his employers.
Step by painstaking step, we follow the Jackal in his meticulous planning, from the fashioning of a specially made rifle to the devising of his approach to the time and the place where the general is to meet the Jackal’s bullet. The only obstacle in his path is a small, diffident, rumpled policeman, who happens to be considered by his boss the best detective in France: Deputy Commissaire Claude Lebel.
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About the author
Frederick Forsyth (1938–2025) was the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several acclaimed novels, including The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File, as well as short-story collections and a memoir. He won three Edgar Awards, and in 2012 he won the Diamond Dagger Award from the Crime Writers’ Association, a lifetime achievement award for sustained excellence. More than a dozen of his titles have been adapted to film. He was a former pilot for the Royal Air Force and one-time print and television reporter for the BBC.
Simon Prebble, a British-born performer, is a stage and television actor and veteran narrator of some three hundred audiobooks. As one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices, he has received thirty-seven Earphones Awards and won the prestigious Audie in 2010. He lives in New York.
