Review by Booklist Review
The author of the acclaimed Manhunt (2006), about the pursuit of the killer of Abraham Lincoln, here tackles the JFK assassination. Forget conspiracy theories about whodunit. Swanson's focus is on the events themselves, the killing and the hunt for the gunman. Think of this as a true-crime book, not another of the millions (well, it seems like that sometimes) of books about who really shot Kennedy. Swanson takes an hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute approach, tracking killer and victim in the lead-up to the fatal shot and then tracking the killer and his pursuers in the days after the assassination, culminating with the killer's own murder. It's a highly detailed, highly compelling story, and it would be just as compelling if the victim didn't happen to be JFK. Swanson is an excellent writer, and the book, which draws on many dozens of previously published works (his bibliography separates fiction and conspiracy literature from the rest of the pack), is a valuable addition to the JFK collection and to the true-crime genre as a whole.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Swanson's attempt to recount the events leading up to November 22, 1963 and its aftermath in a coherent narrative is nowhere near as successful as his Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. Critical readers will wish that his prefatory note had detailed his use of sources, and why Marina Oswald was for him an unimpeachable witness. In the absence of such an explanation the opening sections, descriptions of her husband's failed attempt on the life of right-wing General Edwin Walker, and extensive quoted dialogue will raise questions of whether Swanson has sacrificed accuracy for dramatic effect. While the author's intended purpose is above all to "resurrect the mood" of the time, his writing is repetitive and as the fatal day nears, the reader is forewarned again and again that such and such occasion will prove to be the last. There are also major assumptions at play in this retelling-most problematically Swanson's treatment of the Warren Commission. Even those who accept the verdict that Oswald acted alone will wonder why Swanson states that this finding was never contradicted by official government investigations when records state otherwise. In the end, Swanson sacrifices too much in the name of storytelling and the result is an oversimplified retelling. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
Despite the apocalyptic title, Swanson (Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer) neither offers another conspiracy theory nor promotes any existing ones, and he does not speculate on how much better the world would have been had Kennedy lived. The author more than delivers on his promise of telling the story of the tragic events of November 22, 1963, and the surrounding days and how those closest to the event, along with the American public, grieved and tried to make sense out of the death of a young and popular president. Lee Harvey Oswald, whom the author regards as the lone assassin, and Jacqueline Kennedy, the grieving widow and orchestrator of the subsequent indelible Camelot myth, receive the most attention. Oswald, the author claims, easily had enough time to fire the three shots that killed JFK and wounded Gov. John Connally. Swanson includes compelling stories about Jacqueline Kennedy's once glamorous life turned to post-assassination sadness: incessant invasions of privacy by the press, public attacks on her remarriage to Aristotle Onassis, and her early death from lymphoma at age 64. Verdict This gripping narrative will captivate readers interested in following the events as they occurred. It will be in demand in public libraries and is an excellent companion volume to Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis's Dallas 1963.-Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
For the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, Swanson (Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse, 2010, etc.) breathlessly re-creates the tragedy. Drawing on the decades of technological advances that have deepened the knowledge of the assassination, the author presents the stunning unfolding of the event in punchy, poignant vignettes, following one character after another to the inexorable conclusion. "Today we know much more about the assassination of President Kennedy than the members of the Warren commission did," acknowledging the organization appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the murder and present its findings nearly a year later. Swanson's tidy, concise character summaries give a terrific sense of the dramatis personae in just a few strokes: JFK, impossibly brilliant and charismatic, overcoming enormous obstacles to his rising star; stylish Jackie, emerging from mourning the death of newborn Patrick, agreeing to accompany her husband to Dallas as part of the campaigning swing through Texas, holding up beforehand for Jack the outfits she had chosen to "show these Texans what good taste really is"; Lee Harvey Oswald, the "lifelong loser and nobody," planning to catch a bus after killing the president; and LBJ, incredibly poised under the strain of those first few hours, especially regarding his graciousness toward Jackie. Swanson manages a sympathetic, human portrait of Marina, Oswald's long-suffering Russian wife, and excoriates the Secret Service for many bad decisions--e.g., the immediate washing out of the limo and the rush to take JFK's body back to Washington, D.C., before a proper criminal autopsy was performed, an oversight that would "come to haunt the history of John Kennedy's assassination for the next fifty years." Clarity has finally lifted the lingering suspicion of conspiracy in favor of the creation of a shining Kennedy legacy. Chilling, gruesome and riveting.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
