| WHO KILLED KENNEDY by James Stevens & David Bishop |
| Story ? Synopsis: James Stevens is a journalist from New Zealand living and working in London, with an interest in the death of JFK. He slowly becomes curious about a mysterious secret force called UNIT, and its operative, the Doctor, who seem involved with several strange incidents around England. When he tries to expose them in his paper, he gets sacked, and C19, an organisation connected to UNIT, end his rather flimsy marriage. He wins a journalism award, and gets his theories published prior to a General Election which sees a change of government. He continues to investigate UNIT, and meets Dodo Chaplet, a troubled young woman who seems to have experience of the Glasshouse, a mysterious experimental place. But C19 remain on his case. He manages to piece together more evidence, but is then almost killed in a petrol bomb attack on his house. He goes to report the attack to the police, but is brutally beaten up there. When he awakes, he finds himself in the Glasshouse, meeting Victor Magister, aka the Master, who had given him tip-offs about UNIT before. Stevens also finds Private Cleary, who has invalided from UNIT on mental grounds. Together, they break out, and Stevens plans to expose the whole operation on TV. But when he turns up with a crew, he finds the building empty and derelict. Humiliated, he goes home to find Dodo has been shot dead. He decides to get revenge on UNIT, but when he meets them at Auderly House, he is almost killed by an Ogron. The Brigadier explains that UNIT are protecting the public from alien invasions all the time. Realising the Master has used him, Stevens contemplates suicide. He is saved by a call from the Doctor, trying to track down the Master. He realises Cleary was brainwashed into travelling to 1963, and shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. Using a time ring, Stevens follows, where he manages to stop Cleary. During the struggle, Oswald is knocked out, and Stevens tries to shoot the Master. JFK is shot from the grassy knoll, where Stevens sees the real perpetrator. He manages to get Cleary home, but the soldier's mind is damaged. Years later, Stevens writes down an account of his experiences, then uses the time ring a final time - to go back again, and shoot JFK. |
| Review:- Something unusual, as the UNIT years are shown from an altogether unfamiliar perspective... Bishop uses Stevens' character to great effect. His Kiwi background sets him up as an outsider from the off, and his journalism ethics are questionable. There are many journalists renowned for a single-minded persistence with stories, to the detrimental exclusion of all else. Mostly, these turn out to have good causes, but here Stevens walks up a blind alley, and pays the consequences. The old series generally paid little heed to whether its stories fitted with each other. The UNIT stories were meant to be in the near future, with The Web Of Fear dated to 1975, and The Invasion to four years hence. The thorny problem of UNIT dating has invigorated the mind of many a fan, and this book has a fair bash at making some sort of sense about it. Stevens soon notes the presence of UNIT and the Doctor, although he is unable to work out the premise of the former, and the identity of the latter. All he sees are patterns and coincidences, and begins to discern a malign influence behind the scenes... running against this is his relationship with his first wife, whom he neglects until it is too late, with painful results. As soon as he starts on C19, things get nastier. But that only makes him all the more eager to get to the bottom of the story. The middle of the book runs parallel to Season 8, and there are interludes in the form of Cleary's correspondence. Slowly, the poor soldier finds UNIT is not to his liking, but is unable to escape his fate. Stevens meets various supporting characters like Greg Sutton and Liz Shaw, but finds he's really put the wind up C19. His relationship with Dodo leads him to the Glasshouse, and the trial of Victor Magister leads him closer to the truth about UNIT (or so he thinks). But for an investigative journalist, Stevens seems quite stupid, and walks from the firebombing of his home into a police station, and then into the clutches of C19. Not only that, but having made what he thinks is a daring escape, he returns with a film crew to realise he's been totally set up. And that Dodo has been killed in his absence. And just as he goes to finally confront UNIT and get some small token of revemge, he comes face to face with the truth - UNIT are the good guys, keeping the big secret that aliens are trying to land and take over. It's no wonder that he decides to end it all. From there, it's downhill to the finish, as the occasional backstory about JFK becomes central to the plot. Apparently, this was an amendment to his original plot, so it's not so surprising that it doesn't work that well. As a one-off, this mostly manages to have its cake and eat it. The skewed representation of UNIT does make it seem that to the general public something odd is happening. As the investigation gets more personal, and C19 seem to have a vendetta, some sense of truth is lost. Using Dodo is a bit of a cheat really, as she is only used to get Stevens close to the Glasshouse, rather than the Doctor. And her death seems rather offhand. By the time that Stevens is confessing to the crime of the 20th century, patience has run out, even if admiration remains. It's a good book, mostly. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |