Last Man at Arlington

George Williams #1

by Joseph DiMona

A tightly muscled and unflinching thriller. Six low-level Kennedy administration operatives are targeted for murder by a mad man on the tenth anniversary of the assassination. One of the intended victims, George Williams, now a Justice Department agent, is locked in a life and death struggle to find the killer before it's too late.

Genres: Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Born in Haddonfield, N.J., Mr. DiMona attended Duke University, where he wrote for campus publications and became the head cheerleader, earning the nickname Jumping Joe. He interrupted his education to enlist in the Navy in 1942, seeing action on Okinawa and throughout the Pacific.

After the war, he returned to Duke to graduate and received a law degree at George Washington University Law School. While there he worked as a radio announcer for the Washington Senators and Washington Redskins and as a copy boy at The Washington Post. He passed the bar but never practiced law, preferring to write.

He collaborated with H.R. Haldeman on his 1978 memoir "The Ends of Power" and wrote numerous works of fiction and non-fiction. He passed away at the age of 76 in 1999.

Reviews

[Gram]

Can't believe there's only been 1 review of this book on goodreads, so far. This is a cracking thriller in which an ex-Green Beret, scarred by his experiences in Vietnam, issues a list of 6 people he will kill before the 10th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, in November 1963. Justice Department lawyer George Williams is the man who receives the death list and warns the other 5 possible victims to protect themselves against a man who proves to be a formidable assassin. Each of those on the list had only minor connections to the Kennedy White House and a large part of the plot is taken up with Williams - aided by the vast resources of the Justice Department and the FBI - trying to figure out exactly why the killer has chosen these particular 6 names. The story races along at breakneck speed and seems more like a movie script, (the author Joseph DiMona was a screenwriter, who also who collaborated on the Watergate memoir of the imprisoned former White House chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman. So he knew something about the US Intelligence services and how their warped minds work!), and it should come as no surprise that this book was optioned for the movies but somehow never made it to the screen. Although written more than 40 years ago, this conspiracy thriller holds up far better than most of the same type produced in the past 10 years. The blurb on the cover compares it to "Day Of The Jackal" and the actions of the killer in DiMona's tale certainly bear comparison with the exploits of The Jackal in Frederick Forsyth's tale of an assassination attempt on the French President Charles De Gaulle. A fast but very satisfying read. (Note - one of the weapons that the killer in Last Man at Arlington appropriates for one of the deaths makes for a jaw-dropping chapter).

[Richard]

Too many characters with poor development: very unclear motivation for the murders, chase doesn’t make a lot of sense.

[Brynda Gail S. Roth]

Suspenseful

Its a very revealing story & makes one wonder about our govt, specifically the CIA.,
even if this book is fiction.
I'm going to read his 2nd book, that follows Williams.
I recommend DiMonase books to anyone who likes these kind of possible
actions of our govt.

[Marianne]

Lots of characters. Last half of book was exciting and read quickly.

[John Welsh]

Steely, efficient 1970s political thriller, tightly plotted and gracefully written with a smattering of period-authentic cynicism and sexism.

[Isaac Dhliwayo]

An excellent read