‘HOW TO KILL A PRESIDENT’ : HE GAVE THE ‘BLUEPRINT’

The author is no more..and the thrill is gone

I just can’t think I shall not find anymore book from Fredrick Forsyth. He has passed away on June 10, 2025

. The sadness is unbearable. I started with  “ The Day of the Jackal” many decades ago and then savoured all his thrillers. I have all his book with me which often i still open and as usual have to finish leaving every other works aside . His was colourful life and his thrillers were , for me, the Best— extensively researched and based on more or less some real experience.

Forsyth was a genius and his books stand apart. His books based on high class research do give his readers not only the thrill but also impart a pretty good knowledge of history, geography, geostrategic realities, espionage , inter-/intra department links , pulls and pressures involving CIA , FBI, MI6 MI5 KGB Mossad or others , special ops by intelligence agencies , corporate manipulation, mercenaries and their operations and definitely the Lone wolf or the “Jackal” type assassination and that too in the nano level details–and chilling precision. He can tell you how to make a specific sniper with a special bullet to assassinate a president or how you can utilize everyday use materials like an eraser , hacksaw blade, condom, gas cylinder, small cells to make a devastating bomb only to ensure that there is “No Comebacks “..

The intrigue, before he told us, was never so intriguing .

He showed us a world where nothing was accidental — where history, politics, technology, and human ambition collided in deadly symmetry. His thrillers were not fantasy. They were rooted in terrifying plausibility.

In his life time long ago Forsyth became a legend. By the sheer brilliance of his intricate and complex yet lively story plots, narrative styles with captivating imagination he swayed the readers of all age across the world –time and again, exposing them into a maze of new world of suspense where every moment counts for survival or safety. His villains were cold, precise, and brilliant. His heroes, often solitary, flawed, but determined. …He took us deep into the corridors of clandestine power, where briefcases weighed more than armies and a signature could trigger a coup….And thus it is not surprising that most of his thrillers were made highly acclaimed movies.

Many movies which are not made exactly on his book are still overtly influenced by him and took cue from his books.

Even some of the world famous writers were clearly influenced by him and borrowed theme from him . When i read Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins authored “The Fifth Horseman” i was amazed to find that the moot idea of ‘nuking’ New York was by and large taken away from Forsyth ‘s The Fourth Protocol ..

And yes, he also touched India and and the Indian and even Maa Kaali in his short story collections — No Comebacks.. (There are no snakes in Ireland )

It was said that after he wrote his first novel ( it is said the book was written only in 33 days.. 1971 …and became worldwide hit and remained so for decades) —-The Day of The Jackal —-governments were reported to have quietly asked him not to write again. Why? Because he had shown the world how to kill a president — in detail. Not as fantasy, but as blueprint….They felt if Forsyth continued with such deadly details then no President or Prime Minister in the world would be “safe” anymore. ..His imagination didn’t just thrill — it warned. It was Forsyth who wrote “there is no escape from a determined killer “ and he meant it….he virtually proved it by his detailed and extensively researched works with intense imagination..

Fredrick Forsyth is the first and the last.. He stands apart and even after his passing away he will keep on influencing the world of thrillers and make his readers like me jaw fallen — Awe struck .

the truth of his fiction was too sharp to ignore. His books didn’t age. They evolved. And every time we read them again, we saw something new — something real.

Today, a quiet part of my bookshelf will now be forever still. There will be no new plot. No new chase. No new assassin whose shadow lengthens page by page.

Frederick Forsyth, the master chronicler of shadow wars, the architect of pulse-racing realism, might have taken his final bow today but in every dog-eared copy of The Odessa File, every re-read of The Dogs of War, every shiver induced by The Fist of God, —he lives on.

“We haven’t got many authors like him, we will miss him greatly”

Conservative MP, @DavidDavisMP, reflects on Frederick Forsyth’s life, who has died at the 86 after a brief illness.https://t.co/AZpDbFOtVo

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— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 9, 2025