The Book of Assassins: A Biographical Dictionary from Ancient Times to the Present

Useful for unbiased details Fetherling, George, 2001 Kaplan, Fanny. The Book of Assassins: A Biographical Dictionary from Ancient Times to the Present. Wiley ISBN-10 0471158917; ISBN-13: 978-0471158912 This book is most useful for its historic details, for instance if one wants to recall "which Somoza was killed where" this is a handy place to find out. Fetherling is careful to thread his way through the morass that surrounds President Kennedy's death exploring the most likely possibilities including, as so many authors omit, that Fidel Castro may well have been involved. The reason for this review was I needed such a handbook to thread my way through a Cuban government sanctioned volume trying to distinguish probable fact from propaganda. In the Cuban book, while discussing the life of Stalinist master spy "Fabio Grobart" (the Castro's brothers' "maestro") the author had maligned Fanny Kaplan the woman who shot, and eventually, long after she was executed, killed Lenin. The Fetherling book provided me with a carefully researched account of very troubled Fanny, and thus by its balanced presentation of fact, provided me with a most apt illustration of Cuban government propaganda to use in my manuscript in progress "Narrations of War in Cuba."

This book is a treasure chest for those of us who are fascinated by those flesh and blood Eumenides who have felt called upon to bring the great ones of the earth to account for their crimes, real or imagined. The author provides an wonderfully encyclopedic account of history's assassins, in all countries and eras. I have only two complaints- 1. he omitted the great Cassius Chaerea, the assassin of the Emperor Caligula, and 2. In his listing for Lee Harvey Oswald, he gives credence to the various conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination. Besides that, this is an excellent catalogue of that select group of men and women who barged their way into history with a single bloody act.

I borrowed this book from a friend. I loved all the little trivia. It helps that the author included assassination attempts (including those who were deluded enough to think a pistol loaded with tobacco would kill Queen Victoria). Including those who may not have done any actual harm but meant to makes the book a little less predictable. It's not all "this one killed that one and here's why." Each summary is about 1-3 pages long. Which is just long enough to give details but not too long to get bored with them. Things I have learned about assassins. 1. Always succeed. The punishment is much worse if you don't. In fact, I think the author nicluded a little too much description on some deaths 2. Never be anyone who is related to an assassin (if the assassin isn't trying to kill you there is still a good chance you'll go mad or be punished for his/ her act. 3. Don't be the guy who catches the successful assassin. It never ends well. 4. Never piss off a woman (see Henriette Caillaux) 5. Generally avoid being royalty. Your relatives are all out to get you. The only criticism I have is that is is missing two major figures. Saddam Hussein and Orlando Bosch.