Assassinations: History's Most Shocking Moments of Murder, Betrayal, and Madness

The London-based Grant is a veteran of more than 20 titles,""primarily on aspects of social life and military conflict."" Assassinations are perhaps the most distilled form of that particular preoccupation, scaling social life and military conflict down to what is often a one-on-one encounter that uses violence for political ends. Grant begins this full-color, glossy-stocked book under the heading""Moments in History"" with eight pages on Lincoln, six on Archduke Franz Ferdinand and eight on JFK. He then jumps back 2000 years to Philip II of Macedon and Julius Caesar (and other Romans), and skips forward to Thomas a Beckett and Rasputin under the heading""Power Struggles."" The layout is chunky, the colors bland and the photos stock-looking, giving the book a sinister cast appropriate to off-the-grid plotting. Sadat, Indira Gandhi, Rabin and Castro (not everyone here was the victim of a successful attempt) all make appearances, as do RFK, MLK and Malcolm X. Reagan assassination-attempt survivor James Brady and wife Sarah provide a foreword.