The Legacy

The central feature of this Stephen Frey novel is a fascination with the Kennedy assassination and the answer that conspiracy junkies have long believed: that the United States government has been involved in covering up the existence of a second gunman ever since that fateful day in November 1963. In Frey's world while the government was not responsible for the assassination the belief that evidence of a conspiracy would have pushed the Cold War into a hot one "forced" those at the top to keep that evidence to themselves. The novel's prologue sets the stage as a struggling actress goes to Dallas and films the motorcade on a whim. Before she has even digested that she has captured one of the most memorable moments in American history her camera is ripped from her grasp by a mysterious man. The chapter that follows jumps to 1998 as New York bonds trader Cole Egan receives a phone call telling him of his estranged father's death and of a package that awaits him in a safety deposit box. The package of course contains a video of the film stolen from the actress and Cole realizes he is sitting on a gold mine: from the other side of Dealey Plaza the tape shows the firing rifle denied by the Warren Commission. Of course the U.S. government has not gone to all the trouble of keeping such information secure for over 30 years just to let some upstart indebted bonds trader make a fortune selling the truth to the highest bidder. The novel takes flight as the dashing and resourceful Cole begins his quest to receive the benefits of his legacy while competently evading the knives guns and explosives of a super secret government agency. Not only is the government (portrayed as a surprisingly well-organized structure) intent on controlling the truth so are those who might be accused of the assassination. Although Cole is initially confident about who the bad guys are the suspense builds as the line separating allies and enemies dissolves and our hero finds out quite a lot about himself his father and the lengths to which the government will go to keep its secrets. --Kimberly Crouch