The Fourth K

This isn’t the familiar Mafia routine with treachery and deception at every turn of the page where, presided by the silent but sure law of Omerta, the stories revolve around revenge and the sense of honour that binds syndicates. But this time the story is of politics and dictators.

When the terrorists assassinates the Pope and holds a plane full of travelers including the first daughter of the United States as hostage, it depends on one man and his staff to thwart the ploys of the terror group. Parallel to that is the threat of a mini atom bomb in the heart of the city. With all these difficulties along with the opposition and the influential Socrates club trying to oversee his every move, President Francis Xavier Kennedy finds it the ultimate challenge of his career. To know how the crisis is managed you have to go through the book but two things I can promise, one, the story is superbly orchestrated devoid of undue heroism that makes it more realistic. And two, though this is not about the underworld, but Puzo draws a clear parallel with political maneuvers that shapes nations and creates dictators. With exciting revelations of fictitious political machinery, the only disappointing is occasional lengthy introductions to characters and the subtlety of the multiple climaxes that decelerates the pace a bit.