"Of the numerous books on JFK's assassination, many are dogmatic, speculative, or swamped by numbing detail. Fortunately, Kurtz offers a superior account. He has spent four decades researching the assassination, and the result is this balanced appraisal of the varying theories, from the long gunman-'magic bullet'-premise to those conspiracy theories that cannot be dismissed as the ramblings of kooks. Kurtz himself favors conspiracy and includes convincing evidence, from previously classified documents released after the 1992 President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, that reveals CIA, FBI, Secret Service, and Warren Commission cover-ups. Intriguing accounts bolstering the author's conclusions include details relating to Lee Harvey Oswald, the Cuban-Mafia connection, the bumbling autopsy of the slain President, and the controversial roles of Lyndon Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, and Warren Commission members Arlen Specter and Gerald Ford. Highly recommended." - Library Journal (starred review) "A smart, engaging history of the stormy debate surrounding the death of President John F. Kennedy. This is a book you can trust on a topic fraught with controversy." - Douglas Brinkley, Baker Institute, Rice University "A skillfully balanced and up-to-date summary. If I were teaching a course on the JFK assassination, this book would definitely be near the top of my reading list." - Gerald D. McKnight, author of Breach of Trust: How the Warren Commission Failed the Nation and Why"