Two Good Knees

by Frederick Forsyth (1971)

Bought from one of the second hand bookshop in Sim Lin Square, Singapore during summer 03/04.

The book is so good that I finished it in an 10-hours run and later on inspired me to look for other Forsyth’s books.

It has a superbly detailed plot and it blurs the line between history and fiction completely. Forsyth is so convincing that unless you know the actual fact, you’d swallow everything in the book as what actually happened.

Quoted from Wikipedia:

The novel is widely regarded as one of the best “spy thrillers” ever written, widely praised for its convincing portrayal of France in 1962, and carefully thought-out plot. The book was filmed in 1973 by Fred Zinnemann starring Edward Fox in the title role. Like the novel, the film was praised for its depiction of 1962 France.

While the OAS did exist as described in the novel and the film opens with a remarkably accurate re-enactment of the Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry-led attempt on de Gaulle’s life, most of the remaining plot is fictional. The storyline follows the efforts of an extremely professional hired assasin (hired by an exiled OAS) in his preparations to assasinate de Gaulle, the efforts of an equally professional but rather hard-pressed French detective assigned to identify and stop him along with elements of intrigue and bureaucratic maneuvering at the highest levels of the French government.

The famous hitman Carlos the Jackal may have taken the novel as inspiration for his nickname: A copy was found in his hotel room after a police raid.

Everyone that reads should read this book.