Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Some writers play coy about whether or not

their novels reveal their true thoughts on a matter. They say stuff like, oh, that's just the

character's opinion, not mine, even though it sure does feel like the author's opinion.

Other times, an author will outright say, this was written specifically because it reflects

what I think.

Today's interview is an example of the latter.

It's with novelist William Boyd about a spy thriller novel The Predicciment, which is set

during the height of the Cold War.

And in this interview with NPR Scott Simon, Boyd talked about how the book presents a theory as to what actually happened when President Kennedy was assassinated and how it's a theory Boyd is quite convinced by.

That's ahead.

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Let me tell you about Gabriel Dax.

He's a Cold War era travel writer who goes all over the world.

That nicely positions him to also be a British secret agent. But he also gets envelopes of

cash from the KGB, which MI6 thinks is just fine, keeps his cover. British intelligence sends

Gabriel to Guatemala on a friendly errand for the CIA,

but the trip has none foreseen lethal result, and that will pluck a wire inside Gabriel when he's

sent to West Berlin to find termites, traitors in spy slang shortly before the visit of President John F. Kennedy.

...