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Executive Action
assassination of a head of state.
- GenresFiction
Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 13, 2023
“Executive Action” book review
I read part of this book back in 1985 at the tender age of 10 after watching the movie on KCOP-TV Channel 13 in L.A. Now, 38 years after, I’ve finally read the novel in its entirety, with an adult’s perspective.
The novel certainly holds your interest. It also goes into far more elaborate detail than the movie does.
For instance, one of the novel’s two co-protagonists (for all practical purposes), Van Preston, isn’t even in the movie.
Meanwhile the other co-protagonist, “the technician” (we learn his first name is Tom, but never his surname) has a much bigger role in the book that he does in the film (wherein he’s portrayed by William Watson), including a subplot where his role in the conspiracy is putting a serious crimp on his love life.
Interestingly, one real-life figure from the alleged conspiracy to assassinate JFK who appears in the novel but not in the film is David Ferrie; movie buffs will recall his portrayal by Joe Pesci in the 1991 Oliver Stone film “JFK.”
Meanwhile, certain major characters from the movie, like Farrington (played by the late great Burt Lancaster) are totally absent from the book.
The authors certainly have a way with words, as most starkly demonstrated in two scenes where Van Preston takes a trip to the so-called “Primeval Woods in northern California,” which is evidently a thinly veiled stand-in for the real-life Bohemian Grove. These scenes are lurid, quite frankly depraved, and borderline pornographic.
Interesting description of Jack Ruby as “a creature sent out from central casting to play an attendant hood in the B-movie world of the Warner Brothers in the 1930s.”
Meanwhile, the book’s back cover blurb claims that “The authors, Donald Freed and Mark Lane, have researched deeper and know more about the assassination of John F. Kennedy than any other living human beings.” Yet they commit some egregious factual errors that belie such claims:
—They quote Nellie Connally as saying to Jack Kennedy (just before the fatal and fateful shots were fired) that “You certainly can’t say that the people of Dallas haven’t given you a nice welcome.” Her actual words were "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you;” moreover, the authors somehow omit Kennedy’s reply (his last words to boot) of “No, you certainly can’t.”
—In describing the actual death of President, Messrs. Freed and Lane write: “The skull, the hair, the brain, the face, the eyes, the tongue, the bone, the blood of John Fitzgerald Kennedy: exploded in a pulp.” Um, okay, JFK’s skull, brain, and blood certainly did explode, but anybody who’s scene the autopsy photos, whether in nonfiction books on the assassination and/or the Oliver Stone film, knows that the face, eyes, and tongue remained perfectly intact.
—Not once, but twice referring to the Soviet intelligence agency as “KBG” [sic] instead of “KGB.” One such error, I can chalk up to a simple typo and faulty editing, but twice (and in a footnote no less)? C’mon, man!
—The authors make the same faulty assumption that quite a authors (especially those of leftist political persuasion) of JFK assassination-related material seem to make, i.e. the depiction of JFK as some sort of ultra-bleeding heart total pacifist. He wasn’t; he commissioned the U.S. Army Special Forces (AKA “Green Berets) and the Navy SEALs f’r cryin’ out loud!
—Last but not least, Freed, Lane, and Richard H. Popkin (who wrote the novel’s Introduction) seem to think that right-wingers are the only ones capable of such vile conspiracies.
I read part of this book back in 1985 at the tender age of 10 after watching the movie on KCOP-TV Channel 13 in L.A. Now, 38 years after, I’ve finally read the novel in its entirety, with an adult’s perspective.
The novel certainly holds your interest. It also goes into far more elaborate detail than the movie does.
For instance, one of the novel’s two co-protagonists (for all practical purposes), Van Preston, isn’t even in the movie.
Meanwhile the other co-protagonist, “the technician” (we learn his first name is Tom, but never his surname) has a much bigger role in the book that he does in the film (wherein he’s portrayed by William Watson), including a subplot where his role in the conspiracy is putting a serious crimp on his love life.
Interestingly, one real-life figure from the alleged conspiracy to assassinate JFK who appears in the novel but not in the film is David Ferrie; movie buffs will recall his portrayal by Joe Pesci in the 1991 Oliver Stone film “JFK.”
Meanwhile, certain major characters from the movie, like Farrington (played by the late great Burt Lancaster) are totally absent from the book.
The authors certainly have a way with words, as most starkly demonstrated in two scenes where Van Preston takes a trip to the so-called “Primeval Woods in northern California,” which is evidently a thinly veiled stand-in for the real-life Bohemian Grove. These scenes are lurid, quite frankly depraved, and borderline pornographic.
Interesting description of Jack Ruby as “a creature sent out from central casting to play an attendant hood in the B-movie world of the Warner Brothers in the 1930s.”
Meanwhile, the book’s back cover blurb claims that “The authors, Donald Freed and Mark Lane, have researched deeper and know more about the assassination of John F. Kennedy than any other living human beings.” Yet they commit some egregious factual errors that belie such claims:
—They quote Nellie Connally as saying to Jack Kennedy (just before the fatal and fateful shots were fired) that “You certainly can’t say that the people of Dallas haven’t given you a nice welcome.” Her actual words were "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you;” moreover, the authors somehow omit Kennedy’s reply (his last words to boot) of “No, you certainly can’t.”
—In describing the actual death of President, Messrs. Freed and Lane write: “The skull, the hair, the brain, the face, the eyes, the tongue, the bone, the blood of John Fitzgerald Kennedy: exploded in a pulp.” Um, okay, JFK’s skull, brain, and blood certainly did explode, but anybody who’s scene the autopsy photos, whether in nonfiction books on the assassination and/or the Oliver Stone film, knows that the face, eyes, and tongue remained perfectly intact.
—Not once, but twice referring to the Soviet intelligence agency as “KBG” [sic] instead of “KGB.” One such error, I can chalk up to a simple typo and faulty editing, but twice (and in a footnote no less)? C’mon, man!
—The authors make the same faulty assumption that quite a authors (especially those of leftist political persuasion) of JFK assassination-related material seem to make, i.e. the depiction of JFK as some sort of ultra-bleeding heart total pacifist. He wasn’t; he commissioned the U.S. Army Special Forces (AKA “Green Berets) and the Navy SEALs f’r cryin’ out loud!
—Last but not least, Freed, Lane, and Richard H. Popkin (who wrote the novel’s Introduction) seem to think that right-wingers are the only ones capable of such vile conspiracies.
February 16, 2020
I can't recall spending so many days on one book. As far as the JFK case is concerned my usual reading matter is in the non-fiction catagory, but I acquired 'Executive Action' because this copy was signed by both authors.
No doubt the late Mark Lane is responsible for the storyline, and those readers who are somewhat familiar with the assassination will recognise some of the characters in the plot, Roscoe White and Abraham Bolden being the two most obvious.
Freed's prose is quite colourful and holds the fact and fiction together in this black op to the final shots in Dealey Plaza.
Freed and Lane's publication asks the reader to decide if their plot is really fictional. Later to be made into a motion picture with Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan.
No doubt the late Mark Lane is responsible for the storyline, and those readers who are somewhat familiar with the assassination will recognise some of the characters in the plot, Roscoe White and Abraham Bolden being the two most obvious.
Freed's prose is quite colourful and holds the fact and fiction together in this black op to the final shots in Dealey Plaza.
Freed and Lane's publication asks the reader to decide if their plot is really fictional. Later to be made into a motion picture with Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan.
March 16, 2023
A badly written book that fictionalizes the conspiracy theory (which is also theoretically fiction) that the two authors came up with on the Kennedy assassination. Maybe it would have been better if it had just been written as a non-fiction book but as a novel it just doesn't work because neither of the authors seem to show much talent for prose. I found this book to be incredibly boring and after about 150 pages I started skipping a lot through the rest of it so I could finish it and move on to something else. I remember seeing the movie when it was released and I was still in high school and even though that's been almost 50 years now I seem to remember that neither myself or any of the friends I was with thought much of the movie either.
October 22, 2025
The 1973 movie with the same name starring Burt Lancaster is fine enough. Both the book and the movie are difficult to get ahold of today, luckily there's Buccaneer's Cove to the rescue.
The story is interesting, and it's easy to see where Oliver Stone's JFK got some of its inspiration, as the two tick a fair amount of the same boxes.
Unfortunately this book is isn't particularly well written. This story and premise deserved better.
The story is interesting, and it's easy to see where Oliver Stone's JFK got some of its inspiration, as the two tick a fair amount of the same boxes.
Unfortunately this book is isn't particularly well written. This story and premise deserved better.
December 24, 2023
novel that accompanied the 1973 film "Executive Action" about the JFK assassination..I read it at the time
June 6, 2016
Of course it was a conspiracy!!!!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews