The Day Of The Jackal: by Frederick Forsyth.

Few sources could have let the world outside know about the various factors as far as people not involved with then diplomatic or political world involved, about the attempts on life of De Gaulle, a national hero of France since the end of wwII, and about the general displeasure about Algerian independence in various circles in France. It was electrifying in how much one learns from this tale set in the sixties in France.