The Fourth K by Mario Puzo

'He Drew the pistol with his right hand and held it to the exposed skin of her neck. And then before she could understand the touch of metal, he pulled the trigger and let her body fall from his. 
She seemed to float upward into the air, into the sun, into the halo of her own blood. Then her body tumbled so that her legs pointed to the sky and then turned again before she hit the cement runway, lying there, smashed beyond any mortality, with her ruined head cratered by the burning sun.'

The time: the near future. The place: the White House. Francis Xavier Kennedy, President of the United States, cousin of JFK, faces the greatest crisis of his career. Theresa, his only child, has been seized by terrorists, who are making impossible demands - and simultaneously two unbalanced young scientists are holding the nation to ransom with a secretly planted nuclear device. Surrounded by passionately loyal advisers, all too aware of the threat of assassination hanging over any Kennedy presidency, he acts - and alienates the richest and most powerful group of men in the United States, who determine to destroy him.

Mario Puzo, who in The Godfather so compellingly portrayed the world of Mafia power, now turns to the world of politics - and finds it as driven by greed, fear, and the lust for power. Yet it is a world where strong passions, deep family attachments, and intense loyalty count as much as the devastating violence that erupts into the central characters' lives. In a novel of breathtaking excitement, Puzo displays his profound understanding of the mechanisms of power and of what drives men to desperate action. Through scenes of sudden, shocking horror, and moments of great pathos, his novel rockets towards its terrifying climax like a bullet to its target.

Genres: Thriller - Crime - Mystery - Politics 
Condition: Very good
Published: 1991 by Heinemann
Pages: 501
ISBN: 043460495x
Weight: 800g