It might be because he died about the same time as Sly Stone, but there has been little notice (even on this Board) about the passing of Frederick Forsyth, author of many thrillers, starting with The Day of the Jackal
I first learned about Forsyth when I saw Fred Zinneman’s film adaptation of Jackal, and read the book shortly afterwards. I also read his follow-up, The Odessa File – I got passed along a review copy of the book that was sent to my mother’s boss. Great book. I immediately started “filming” it in my head, and when the film version arrived I was happy to see that they actually did a lot of it the way I’d envisioned. I’m still bummed that they cut a lot out of the novel for the film, though. (Derek Jacobi appeared in both the first two Forsyth films).
The third novel, The Dogs of War, wasn’t quite as compelling. It’s about a coup in an African nation that is re-routed at the end – all of Forsyth’s works have clever twists in them – for the benefit of the country’s inhabitants, rather than for the greedy billionaires backing the coup. Life almost imtated art with that one, because we learned in 2008 that Forsyth himself was involved in something similar to benefit the refugees from Biafra (Forsyth’s first book – the only one of his I haven’t read - was the non-fiction the Biafra Story)
After that he took a break from novels, although he put out several short stories (mostly collected in No Comebacks). His later novels aren’t quite up to his first three, although still well above the usual standard. I’d love to see someone film The Devil’s Alternative as a Cold War period piece. I kind of get the feeling that he was goaded into getting back into the game by the success of Tom Clancy’s techno-thrillers. Several of his stories and novels were adapted as movies or TV miniseries, but I was underwhelmed by most of these, like The Fourth Protocol. I do, however, have a soft spot for the TV adaptation of his short story The Careful Man.
I loved both The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File. I read the books before I saw the movies, so I could see how the stories were condensed for the sake of brevity.
I’m surprised to learn he was still alive. I remember him being interviewed around 2000 for his latest novel (I don’t remember which), where he described how to get a false British passport like the Jackal did, but in much more detail. He said he was shocked to find it was just as easy then as it had been a quarter century earlier. (I suspect things are very different now.)
RIP, Mr Forsythe. You gave me many hours of great reading.
I have a special attachment to Day of the Jackal, because my 6th-grade school librarian, who was pretty hippy-dippy, gave up on finding me books in our meager elementary school library and began giving me whatever paperback she had just finished. Thus, at eleven years old I read both Jackal and The Odessa File, Six Days of the Condor, and I don’t recall what else.
At no point did she suggest (I don’t think) that I hide their provenance, but I kinda knew to keep the books to myself…I suspect this might get you fired these days, but god bless you Mrs. Nelson, it was a great year. I have to admit that the sex parts confused me (and at least one of them is still stuck in my head), but I became really addicted to action novels, and both bought and shoplifted many of them in the subsequent years.
As for Forsyth’s books, I also struggled when I came to Dogs of War, and didn’t read anything later, but the two aforementioned novels are still standouts. RIP.
Aww, damn. He’s one of my favorite authors. I can read The Fist of God over and over and I enjoyed the semi-sequel, The Afghan. The Deceiver isn’t available on Amazon so I was delighted to find a hard copy of it in a community free library.
Does anyone know if he had any novels on the verge of being published? I’m pretty sure his last fictional book was The Fox and that was several years ago.
I believe (someone correct me if I’m wrong) that Forsyth invented the modern thriller genre with The Day of the Jackal, which completely blew me away when I first read it in the early 80s. As far as I’m concerned, it’s still the second-best thriller ever written, after The Devil’s Alternative.
My absolute favorite author. I love how his characters covered all their bases and attended to each detail regardless of how minute’ even if it turned out they didn’t need to in the end.
Day of the Jackal was an excellent adaptation of the novel and the best of any of the films made from his books. “The Jackal” with Richard Gere and Bruce Willis was a piece of shit and Forsyth should have been deeply insulted by it.
In the aforementioned interview, Forsythe said he had a hard time finding a publisher for The Day of the Jackal. The prevailing attitude among the powers that were was: “Why would anyone want to read a book about preparing for a hit? Cut to the action right away!”
The film was by Fred Zinneman, who had made the classic western High Noon. Just as in that film, Day of the Jackal is filled with constant references to time, only in this case that includes lots of shots of calendars as well as clocks. Just as High Noon was a countdown to the climax at Noon, DotJ is a countdown to the date and time of the assassination of de Gaulle, although that really isn’t made clear until just before the end.
Agreed that The Jackal is an abysmal remake, which Zinneman hated. I never heard about any reaction from Forsyth.
I was given The Day of the Jackal by an older schoolmate for the sex scenes (I was maybe 12 or 13 at the time, and this was in Islamized Pakistan in the early 1980s)
Amazon tells me there is a new book coming titled Revenge of Odessa, with Tony Kent as co-author. Release date shows as Nov 18, 2025. I enjoyed The Odessa File so it’ll be interesting to see where this goes updated for the 21st century.
There is a movie version of Avenger but I enjoy that book a lot and I think a movie would have to take too many liberties with the plot. Adapting Forsyth seems like it is similar to adapting Tom Clancy. There’s just too much that has to be glossed over in any story. I’m also curious about the The Day of the Jackal TV series. Has anyone seen either of these?
The Shepherd (1975) - a “novella” about a pilot who strays off-course over the North Sea on Christmas Eve.
Canada’s CBC radio has played Alan Maitland (1920-1999) reading “The Shepherd” every Christmas Eve at 6 pm for decades.
I never heard of the now-defunct Swedish talk show “Skavlan” until I saw an interview with British comedian Stephen Merchant, where he described being on that show (about 10 years ago) with, as he put it, “Frederick Forsyth, a brain scientist, and an American missionary who had just recovered from Ebola, and her husband.” “Okay, let’s shake hands - Mr. Forsyth, Dr. Brain Scientist, and…”
