Rating: 
Summary: Awesome
Review: Puzo once again showed his skills as an awesome character developer and as an author who doesn't put together a predictable ending.Read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: What a waste of paper !
Review: The publisher must have thought that anything Puzo wrote was gold as this
appeared a few years ago and rightfully disappeared.
The main characters, Francis Xavier Kennedy, his friends and staff are completely unconvincing and cardboard cutouts.
The assassination of his daughter holds no suspense or regret as she is a cardboard character like the rest of them.
Needless characters and unnecessary plot lines appear to confuse the reader.
Remember that 1/3 of "The Godfather" was junk about Jules the doctor and his love affair with Sonny Corleone's lover.
The movie thankfully cut out the waste and was the better without it.
"The Fourth K" is all fat and no meat.
They are re-releasing it to coincide with
"The Godfather Returns" and terrorists assaults on US soil.
Avoid this book!
Rating:
Summary: Highly Entertaining Read, with Nostradamus-Like Prescience
Review: The young scion of a presidential family is in the White House. The country goes through an Impeachment, a war in the Persian Gulf, an Arab terrorist villified as the Devil on earth, and a horrific terrorist attack on Lower Manhattan. Sounds like the plot of a bad novel written about our times? Ah, but Puzo wrote this book FOURTEEN YEARS AGO, in 1989. The accuracy of this plot in describing our times is scary, haunting and downright amazing. The plot, Puzo's use of language, all the wild twists and turns, and Puzo's exploration of human character are even more so. Without a doubt one of the best novels written in the twentieth-century.
Rating: 
Summary: More like 3 and 1/2
Review: This book is very enjoyable while at the same time being very implausible. I personally do not think that another Kennedy would get elected in this day of conspiracy theories and suchlike. As books go it's main fault is that it over reaches, trying to be too many things all at the same time. It's main story line centers around a potentially deadly series of assignation attempts that include various world figures. There are also 3 sub plots that are pulled off with varying degrees of successes. I'm not saying that this isn't a good read, its just that when all is said and done and the book is finished you have a very unsatisfied feeling in the pit of your stomach. Don't forget that too much is going on all at once, things can get confussing.
Rating: 
Summary: Great story, easy read
Review: This is a pretty good book, and is especially poignant in the post 9/11 world. The story reads like a Tom Clancy political epic, but is executed with that precise Puzo elegance that made The Godfather so wonderful. Now what makes this book worth a read, is the eeriness of the terrorist plot and the response of the US President (a fictional Kennedy named Francis Xavier). Planes are hijacked, New York is attacked, and a country is the Middle East pays a price, all while the American political machine, and Kennedy's inner circle pursues their own self-interest. It is very calculated, and each character has a clear purpose and motive. One thing I love about Puzo is that he uses all of his characters, and The Fourth K is no exception. This is a political thriller, that moves very quickly and is very easy to read. It that way, it is superior to Clancy's work, which plods along with countless details and trivia and builds layer upon layer upon layer until the story explodes (or doesn't, in some cases). This is no Tom Clancy techno-thriller, this is terrorists with dirty bombs, written long before 9/11, by the guy who gave us The Godfather! If you like Puzo, then this is a must-read.
Mark McGinty is the author of "Elvis and the Blue Moon Conspiracy"
Rating:
Summary: Amazing prescience
Review: This is the first book by Puzo that I have ever read that didn't involve the Mafia. This book details the election of Francis Kennedy to the office of President of the United States.
He is basically elected because he is from the Kennedy line that had previously been the President. Kennedy is basically a good and decent man. After his daughter is kidnapped and killed he uses his office to gain revenge. This book is a good study on what the office of President does to Francis Kennedy.Not a bad read at all.
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