Claude Lebel? Who? Not many remember his name. Many more will never know his name. In fact, he is so attention shy that the title of the book that he is central to does NOT refer to him.
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I could have talked about many books - books that tell you to come to work every day with a smile on your face, books that inspire you to count your blessings or books that help you to be the best ‘you’ you can be.
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But I choose to talk about a classic thriller written by the author Frederick Forsyth “The Day of the Jackal”.
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The plot of the novel is spectacular, heavily based on actual historical events and personalities but I wouldn’t want to give out spoilers right here. Briefly put, it is about an attempt by terrorist rivals of French President, General Charles de Gaulle to assassinate him using a professional hitman, the Jackal of the book’s title. Midway through the book, the French government gets wind that money was paid for an assassination attempt and puts all of its power behind protecting their President.
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Problem solved, right? Seal the President in! After all, it is only one man against an entire country’s security & police force?
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Actually… no. Because you underestimate the Jackal. Assassin extraordinaire, flamboyant, master of disguise, identity-less, genius exploiter of human psychology and very terrifyingly professional. In summary, a super-villain. Add to that, the ego of President Charles de Gaulle, refusing to call off public engagements (this was a characteristic of the real Charles de Gaulle, French President as well) despite knowing of a specific assassination attempt being planned on him. Now that situation makes for a tense and exciting book.
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Who will try to stop the Jackal now? Enter police detective Claude Lebel. Now if we were to go by the typical thriller template (say the Jason Bourne series), Claude Lebel the hero would be an emotionally disturbed good-guy-who-did-some-bad-things-but-is-an-expert-in-everything-weapons-languages-martial-arts-basically-Sherlock-Holmes-meets-Bruce-Lee so that he could take on the Jackal.
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But here’s the kicker. Claude Lebel is not any of those things. He is a regular police detective, best in the business no doubt, but still a regular police detective. He wears a shabby overcoat, thinks a lot and has serious issues explaining to his wife why his work takes him so long to finish. To his credit, he may be slow but he is sure, circling around the Jackal’s spectre inching ever closer. He has been given a job and that he must complete.
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Did Lebel get the Jackal? I’ll let you read “The Day of the Jackal” to find out. All around us, far too much focus is on how we must “love” our job and how “inspired” we must be. No one wants to talk about how it is also our duty to do our jobs well. Claude Lebel might have a few words to say on how to be that specific word. Professional.
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