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Saving Kennedy
Two short stories about time travel, the JFK assassination, and the consequences of the choices we make.
ALIBI INTERRUPTED
When Stewart Hudson travels back in time to prevent the assassination of President Kennedy, he not only unexpectedly becomes the accused assassin's alibi, but he also finds himself stuck in 1963. Years later—to ensure Stewart gets it right this time—the wife of his future grandson confronts him before he time trips back to 1963, and she quickly learns that meddling in the affairs of the past always has its consequences.
THE VISITOR
Theodore Garfield never believed the old farmer's story about the day the stranger appeared in his cornfield. And Theodore was even more skeptical about the letter the visitor left behind detailing the gradual downfall of America beginning with the assassination of a future president named John F. Kennedy. Years later the farmer's story is all but forgotten until a young senator named John F. Kennedy is elected president. With the farmer and the letter now long gone, will Theodore be able to prevent one of the most tragic days in American history?
ALIBI INTERRUPTED
When Stewart Hudson travels back in time to prevent the assassination of President Kennedy, he not only unexpectedly becomes the accused assassin's alibi, but he also finds himself stuck in 1963. Years later—to ensure Stewart gets it right this time—the wife of his future grandson confronts him before he time trips back to 1963, and she quickly learns that meddling in the affairs of the past always has its consequences.
THE VISITOR
Theodore Garfield never believed the old farmer's story about the day the stranger appeared in his cornfield. And Theodore was even more skeptical about the letter the visitor left behind detailing the gradual downfall of America beginning with the assassination of a future president named John F. Kennedy. Years later the farmer's story is all but forgotten until a young senator named John F. Kennedy is elected president. With the farmer and the letter now long gone, will Theodore be able to prevent one of the most tragic days in American history?
130 pages, Paperback
Published August 20, 2016
12 people want to read
About the author
J.L. Pattison
7 books31 followersJ.L. Pattison is the author of suspenseful contemporary speculative fiction for modern-day thought criminals.
J.L. Pattison won Libertopia’s “Best Libertarian Fiction” award two years in a row, and his uniquely clever tales with twist endings have garnered him favorable comparisons to Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling, and M. Night Shyamalan. His latest book, The Monster In The Well, is now available.
Connect with J.L. Pattison via ChainBush (his version of LinkTree): https://jlpattison.wordpress.com/conn...
J.L. Pattison won Libertopia’s “Best Libertarian Fiction” award two years in a row, and his uniquely clever tales with twist endings have garnered him favorable comparisons to Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling, and M. Night Shyamalan. His latest book, The Monster In The Well, is now available.
Connect with J.L. Pattison via ChainBush (his version of LinkTree): https://jlpattison.wordpress.com/conn...
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 1, 2021
I don’t remember what I was expecting from this book, but I definitely wasn't disappointed! J.L. Pattison is a skilled writer with plenty of creativity and knowledge and his stories make you think deep while you’re reading them and stick around even after you’ve finished the last page.
Basically, Saving Kennedy consists of two novellas, the first being Alibi Interrupted and the second being The Visitor. (I love the titles because before you’ve read them, they give nothing away about the story, but after you’ve read them, you realize that each title is very straightforward and describes the story exactly!)
Usually I don’t try to summarize the story in my reviews but I think Saving Kennedy is going to be an exception just because it might be a little confusing trying to get what each part of the book is about from the outside for someone who hasn’t read the book yet and because I know it would be very hard to talk about the book without the person reading my review knowing the general plot and storyline.
WARNING: If you don’t want to know too much about the story so you can save it all for when you read it yourself, then maybe don’t read past this point. I don’t spoil any of the endings but there are some potential spoilers up ahead.
Okay, so basically, part one of Alibi Interrupted was about a man named Stewart who lived a decade or two after our current year. Stewart had a mission to test out a time machine and go back into the past to try and stop Lee Harvey Oswald from killing President John F. Kennedy. The thing is, Oswald is actually not who he seems and Stewart’s plan doesn’t go as… planned. Things get even worse when he tries to return back to the future and realizes that his recall module doesn’t work anymore so he’s stuck in the past.
Part two of Alibi Interrupted is from the point of view of Stewart’s granddaughter in-law, Stacy. This takes place decades after Stewart’s wonky mission kinda crashed and burned and he had to make a living for himself in 1963. He got a job for himself and eventually married and had children and grandchildren all the while still being stuck in the “past” and Stacy married one of them. Stacy knows about her grandfather in-law (Stewart) and his botched attempt at changing history so this part is about her trying to warn a young Stewart of his mistakes before he goes back in time so that he can actually succeed in his mission. Stacy was a bit impulsive about this, though, and it doesn’t go like she wanted to at all and the reader is left wondering whether it would’ve been better had she not tried to blabber to Stewart or if she did do the right thing after all. (Super cool, huh?) The beginning of this part of the story was a bit confusing because it just randomly skipped a whole bunch of years and changed POVs without any warning. It wasn't too bad but it took me like the entire story to figure out that Stacy is old now in this part of the story (she has children in college now and white hair versus in the first part of the story when she was still a young woman). So I think the author could have done better with making the time a bit more clear since this is a time-travel book anyway so that’s obviously an important element, but it was just a little thing.
The second short story included is called The Visitor and this one is about a farmer from 1899 who encounters a flustered time-traveler in his corn field. The time traveler was probably from the 21st century (but a few decades after our present day) and he was trying to get back in time to the time of the beginning of the United States to warn the Founding Fathers about the horrible moral decline America (and the world) was going to have. I thought this part of the story didn’t make too much sense because even if Washington and everyone else knew about World War Two and Kennedy’s assassination and such, what would they do about it? What COULD they even do about it? Would they even believe the time traveler? We don’t ever get to know what was in that time-traveler’s head, but he told the farmer about it all, then disappeared just as abruptly as he had reappeared (most likely back into the future). A whole bunch of years pass and the farmer ends up telling a young and ambitious journalist by the name of Theodore Garfield (the main character of this story) about the events that the time-traveler had relayed to him. The two world wars have already occurred, just like the time traveler said they would, and the next event that’s supposed to happen is… yep, you guessed it! JFK is supposed to be assassinated in the next two decades and the old farmer begs Theodore to try to do something to stop it but the young man scoffs and doesn’t believe him at all. Seventeen years pass and Theodore falls ill to a horribly deadly cancer. In the hospital, he realizes that all that time he spent trying to climb the corporate ladder was for nothing. He was going to die very soon and he’d used up all his time and energy grasping for recognition. This part of the story was pretty chilling, realizing that I myself have been taking time for granted just like Theodore did and that I don’t ever want to regret what I’ve done with my time the way he regretted it. In desperation, Theodore finally tells a visiting co-worker about the farmer and the time-traveler and what he said the future was going to hold. Theodore tells the coworker that JFK will be assassinated soon but the co-worker doesn’t believe him. The ending made me shiver in the same way Orwell’s 1984 did. Both stories were very thought-provoking and challenged the very ideals that we live in today.
There’s lots to talk about with Saving Kennedy and I’ve already done quite a bit of that already and I’m sure you will too once you read this book! The author has packed lots and lots of cool stuff to muse over in less than a hundred pages and I would definitely recommend this book to curious readers. I’d love to read more of Pattison’s books in the future as well.
Many thanks to the author for the free review copy! I am beyond grateful. Please note that all opinions expressed are completely my own and I was not required to provide a positive review ☺️
Basically, Saving Kennedy consists of two novellas, the first being Alibi Interrupted and the second being The Visitor. (I love the titles because before you’ve read them, they give nothing away about the story, but after you’ve read them, you realize that each title is very straightforward and describes the story exactly!)
Usually I don’t try to summarize the story in my reviews but I think Saving Kennedy is going to be an exception just because it might be a little confusing trying to get what each part of the book is about from the outside for someone who hasn’t read the book yet and because I know it would be very hard to talk about the book without the person reading my review knowing the general plot and storyline.
WARNING: If you don’t want to know too much about the story so you can save it all for when you read it yourself, then maybe don’t read past this point. I don’t spoil any of the endings but there are some potential spoilers up ahead.
Okay, so basically, part one of Alibi Interrupted was about a man named Stewart who lived a decade or two after our current year. Stewart had a mission to test out a time machine and go back into the past to try and stop Lee Harvey Oswald from killing President John F. Kennedy. The thing is, Oswald is actually not who he seems and Stewart’s plan doesn’t go as… planned. Things get even worse when he tries to return back to the future and realizes that his recall module doesn’t work anymore so he’s stuck in the past.
Part two of Alibi Interrupted is from the point of view of Stewart’s granddaughter in-law, Stacy. This takes place decades after Stewart’s wonky mission kinda crashed and burned and he had to make a living for himself in 1963. He got a job for himself and eventually married and had children and grandchildren all the while still being stuck in the “past” and Stacy married one of them. Stacy knows about her grandfather in-law (Stewart) and his botched attempt at changing history so this part is about her trying to warn a young Stewart of his mistakes before he goes back in time so that he can actually succeed in his mission. Stacy was a bit impulsive about this, though, and it doesn’t go like she wanted to at all and the reader is left wondering whether it would’ve been better had she not tried to blabber to Stewart or if she did do the right thing after all. (Super cool, huh?) The beginning of this part of the story was a bit confusing because it just randomly skipped a whole bunch of years and changed POVs without any warning. It wasn't too bad but it took me like the entire story to figure out that Stacy is old now in this part of the story (she has children in college now and white hair versus in the first part of the story when she was still a young woman). So I think the author could have done better with making the time a bit more clear since this is a time-travel book anyway so that’s obviously an important element, but it was just a little thing.
The second short story included is called The Visitor and this one is about a farmer from 1899 who encounters a flustered time-traveler in his corn field. The time traveler was probably from the 21st century (but a few decades after our present day) and he was trying to get back in time to the time of the beginning of the United States to warn the Founding Fathers about the horrible moral decline America (and the world) was going to have. I thought this part of the story didn’t make too much sense because even if Washington and everyone else knew about World War Two and Kennedy’s assassination and such, what would they do about it? What COULD they even do about it? Would they even believe the time traveler? We don’t ever get to know what was in that time-traveler’s head, but he told the farmer about it all, then disappeared just as abruptly as he had reappeared (most likely back into the future). A whole bunch of years pass and the farmer ends up telling a young and ambitious journalist by the name of Theodore Garfield (the main character of this story) about the events that the time-traveler had relayed to him. The two world wars have already occurred, just like the time traveler said they would, and the next event that’s supposed to happen is… yep, you guessed it! JFK is supposed to be assassinated in the next two decades and the old farmer begs Theodore to try to do something to stop it but the young man scoffs and doesn’t believe him at all. Seventeen years pass and Theodore falls ill to a horribly deadly cancer. In the hospital, he realizes that all that time he spent trying to climb the corporate ladder was for nothing. He was going to die very soon and he’d used up all his time and energy grasping for recognition. This part of the story was pretty chilling, realizing that I myself have been taking time for granted just like Theodore did and that I don’t ever want to regret what I’ve done with my time the way he regretted it. In desperation, Theodore finally tells a visiting co-worker about the farmer and the time-traveler and what he said the future was going to hold. Theodore tells the coworker that JFK will be assassinated soon but the co-worker doesn’t believe him. The ending made me shiver in the same way Orwell’s 1984 did. Both stories were very thought-provoking and challenged the very ideals that we live in today.
There’s lots to talk about with Saving Kennedy and I’ve already done quite a bit of that already and I’m sure you will too once you read this book! The author has packed lots and lots of cool stuff to muse over in less than a hundred pages and I would definitely recommend this book to curious readers. I’d love to read more of Pattison’s books in the future as well.
Many thanks to the author for the free review copy! I am beyond grateful. Please note that all opinions expressed are completely my own and I was not required to provide a positive review ☺️
June 30, 2021
Oh.... My Gosh......
~First of all, I would like to say a huge thank you to the wonderful author of this book, for sending me a free copy of this book in exchange for a review!~
This was just such an amazing short story duo, I mean, I don't even know where to begin. And, mind you, I'm not exactly a fan of short stories (they're just too short, you know?), but, this one... let's just say that all of my friends will know how much I loved it XD
Both of these stories were so believable, you would seriously be considering whether or not the author has actually traveled time himself. (well, he may have... the mystery continues mwahaha) They also left me satisfied with the endings, of course, I REALLY want a continuation of them, because they're just awesome, but they ended very well.
So, in conclusion, if you haven't read this book, like what have you been doing your whole life?! (It's also a relatively short read, which is nice)
View Full Review Here:
https://justabookishblog.wixsite.com/...
~First of all, I would like to say a huge thank you to the wonderful author of this book, for sending me a free copy of this book in exchange for a review!~
This was just such an amazing short story duo, I mean, I don't even know where to begin. And, mind you, I'm not exactly a fan of short stories (they're just too short, you know?), but, this one... let's just say that all of my friends will know how much I loved it XD
Both of these stories were so believable, you would seriously be considering whether or not the author has actually traveled time himself. (well, he may have... the mystery continues mwahaha) They also left me satisfied with the endings, of course, I REALLY want a continuation of them, because they're just awesome, but they ended very well.
So, in conclusion, if you haven't read this book, like what have you been doing your whole life?! (It's also a relatively short read, which is nice)
View Full Review Here:
https://justabookishblog.wixsite.com/...
October 8, 2016
There are some things that can be changed in life - a person, a book, a writing style, character plots, etc. One thing you cannot change though is history. No matter how hard you may wish for time travel, these two short stories by Pattison drive home the truth that once done, history cannot be undone. While the saying is true that we are doomed to repeat history because we never learn from history, it is also true that we repeat history because we want what we cannot have - a different outcome.
Pattison is going to be a name that will continue to shine as the 21st century Rod Serling. To quote the man of The Twilight Zone fame, "It may be said with a degree of assurance that not everything that meets the eye is as it appears." The ability to write in this genre while keeping the attention of the reader is not an easy gift to achieve. Few will ever master it without the use of gratuitous violence or sex scenes, but Pattison will be one of those. I look forward to reviewing and seeing more from J.L. in the years to come.
You will be intrigued with the plot twists and the ultimate outcome on both of the stories that make up this book. They are both stories I have read several times now, and I highly recommend. It will make you rethink history and what you know about the ability to rewrite history. Both stories have a similar thread in that it involves the saving of John F. Kennedy. However, to quote Serling again, "Imagination... its limits are only those of the mind itself." The mind of Pattison has expanded far beyond what most people achieve in order to produce these stories.
Pattison is going to be a name that will continue to shine as the 21st century Rod Serling. To quote the man of The Twilight Zone fame, "It may be said with a degree of assurance that not everything that meets the eye is as it appears." The ability to write in this genre while keeping the attention of the reader is not an easy gift to achieve. Few will ever master it without the use of gratuitous violence or sex scenes, but Pattison will be one of those. I look forward to reviewing and seeing more from J.L. in the years to come.
You will be intrigued with the plot twists and the ultimate outcome on both of the stories that make up this book. They are both stories I have read several times now, and I highly recommend. It will make you rethink history and what you know about the ability to rewrite history. Both stories have a similar thread in that it involves the saving of John F. Kennedy. However, to quote Serling again, "Imagination... its limits are only those of the mind itself." The mind of Pattison has expanded far beyond what most people achieve in order to produce these stories.
December 9, 2018
This well-written and exciting book is a thought-provoking look into this fascinating period of 1960’s history. Having recently watched the Twilight Zone series, the comparisons some have drawn between it and the stories contained within this book is pretty spot on. I could almost imagine Rod Serling introducing each story with, “You are about to enter another dimension….” Perfect for teens and adults (and possibly even younger kids), Saving Kennedy does an excellent job at entertaining, while weaving in some great liberty themes and life wisdom without becoming heavy-handed. And it’s “easy to digest” size makes it a great gift for a family member, co-worker or friend.
June 20, 2021
This book is really entertaining and never boring. I found myself rooting for the main character, Stewart, because he had a noble cause and because the author made the plot plausible. I like the author's writing style and the two stories flow really well together.
March 19, 2024
Pattison dose it again, making a book equally entertaining,insightful and disturbing. A fully enjoyed reading experience! Would recommend to fans of speculative fiction and thought provoking science fiction alike! Trust me you will enjoy! It is unfortunate that genuses like this go unnoticed because they dare to simply speak truth, while sensual, perverse trash pervades the Amazon charts! Reminiscent of the great H.G wells, gorge Orwell and John Bunyan, all Pattison’s books from “Saving Kennedy” to the latest “Monster in the well” are FANTASTIC.
Some may mock those branded as “conspiracy theorists”, like pattison for seeing a conspiracy in everything, my warning is to those who see no conspiracy. Our government has been PROVEN to lie to us discrediting cures for sickness as “horse dewormer” that from personal experience I know works, and the cure they provide proves more fatal than the sickness. This is the government that sanctions the killing of countless lives as healthcare! It is beyond a doubt our government is diabolical and we are in a war for our freedom. Some may mock the battle hardened soldier who assumes every rustling of leaves is an enemy soldier, I warn of the person on a lawn chair, reading a book and sipping lemonade crying “peace, peace” when there is no peace, as the grenades and cannon balls of an enemy army explodes around them. Pattison’s books will hopefully awaken some of these sleeping fools who see not the danger they are in! Like the three sleeping men that the good man Christian attempted to awaken and loos of there shackles so they can flee the coming destruction in john Bunyan’s pilgrims progress, the good man Pattison is attempting to wake you from your political sleep, my question is, will you continue to slumber or wake?
Some may mock those branded as “conspiracy theorists”, like pattison for seeing a conspiracy in everything, my warning is to those who see no conspiracy. Our government has been PROVEN to lie to us discrediting cures for sickness as “horse dewormer” that from personal experience I know works, and the cure they provide proves more fatal than the sickness. This is the government that sanctions the killing of countless lives as healthcare! It is beyond a doubt our government is diabolical and we are in a war for our freedom. Some may mock the battle hardened soldier who assumes every rustling of leaves is an enemy soldier, I warn of the person on a lawn chair, reading a book and sipping lemonade crying “peace, peace” when there is no peace, as the grenades and cannon balls of an enemy army explodes around them. Pattison’s books will hopefully awaken some of these sleeping fools who see not the danger they are in! Like the three sleeping men that the good man Christian attempted to awaken and loos of there shackles so they can flee the coming destruction in john Bunyan’s pilgrims progress, the good man Pattison is attempting to wake you from your political sleep, my question is, will you continue to slumber or wake?
October 8, 2022
There is no contradiction when I say that that J.L. Pattison is an extraordinary writer of Fiction and Truth. He blends the two seeming opposites flawlessly and does so with intelligent storytelling that is free of the filth so common from many authors who apparently lack the faculties necessary to sell books without appealing to the baser instincts. I have read all of his books and would highly recommend each of them to those of us that have already faced the uncomfortable reality we live in and/or those willing to risk their comfort for the first time.
January 30, 2023
Pattison unfolds history past, present and future in this book and evokes an incredible range of emotions, that leaves the reader contemplating daily life. This book left me in a quandary of balancing the struggles of where we are societally and truly reminding myself to live each day as if it’s my last. He is an expert in weaving fiction and factual research, that doesn’t cease to transport you to another time of bygone days. He entrances the reader with each new story.
September 10, 2023
Used the Kindle app not listed with Goodreads. Fun read. What if you had a chance to save Kennedy?! Don't squander it!
July 24, 2025
I'm not normally a thriller type of guy, but JL writes some pretty thought-provoking stuff. In this book are two mini books and of the two, my favorite was he second. From start to finish, there's plenty of meat to digest and I was invested through the end thanks to the exceptional dialogue and the shocking plot twist.
November 4, 2023
10 enjoyed reading it just as munch the second time as i did the first.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews