Behold a Pale Horse

Plunging inexorably toward apocalypse, this expertly layered thriller by the author of The House of Pain darkly foreshadows the forthcoming 2000 presidential elections. Opening in Cuba in 1963, the narrative follows the parallel careers of Cobra, a young Rhodesian sharpshooter who is sent by Castro to Dallas to assassinate JFK, and Rupert Justice Tolliver, a young Texan on the same Dallas flight, who dreams of becoming president. After fulfilling his mission, Cobra ducks his pursuers by joining the U.S. Marines and is sent to Vietnam. Meanwhile, Tolliver enters divinity school to avoid the war and eventually capitalizes on his charisma as a radio/TV evangelist to become governor of Texas. Surviving Vietnam, Cobra returns to Rhodesia and buys a large farm. Over the years, he fights the elements and struggles to keep his land by hiring himself out as a hit man for high pay, all the while following with casual interest the adventures of the sly, Bible-spouting Texan who finally becomes the first U.S. president of the new millennium. Soon after Tolliver is sworn in, a young woman stumbles upon documentation of a shady land deal manipulated to funnel money to Tolliver and his campaign. Meanwhile, once Tolliver takes office, it becomes obvious that the Texan--convinced it is his destiny to fulfill the prophecy of the book of Revelations--is quite mad. With poetic symmetry, a secret group of powerbrokers hires Cobra to execute the ultimate sanction, and the thriller echoes Forsyth's Day of the Jackal as it approaches an adrenaline-charged finale. Though Leib's prose is only workmanlike, his juicy treatment of political chicanery, sexual promiscuity, media hijinks, international intrigue and atomic brinkmanship makes for a gripping read. (Jan.)