2024 Author Expo Author

Each account of and conspiracy theory about President John F. Kennedy’s assassination assumes the perpetrators had malevolent motives. What if the opposite was true?

Upon learning his deteriorating health might result in an inability to govern, Kennedy faced a decision. Would he rather be remembered as another Woodrow Wilson, who following a series of strokes, was totally incapacitated for the last 16 months of his presidency? Or Abraham Lincoln, whose assassination solidified his legacy? And were there other unknown factors which might tarnish the public perception of a young, energetic and popular president. "In the National Interest" is a fictional account of JFK’s eventual choice.

The narrative contains two intertwined stories. Mason Rhodes, one of four Secret Service agents recruited to identify the assassin and arrange for the gunman and victim to converge in Dealey Plaza, maintained what appears to be a contemporaneous account of the planning and implementation of assassination. Rather than a “who done it,” this “how done it” addresses many of the still unanswered questions 60 years after Kennedy’s death. For example, how and why was Lee Harvey Oswald employed at the Texas School Book Depository weeks before any official announcement of the presidential motorcade route?

Afraid to share his journal while still alive, Rhodes bequeaths the document to a trusted friend Jonathan Sheppard who first must determine whether the account is fact or fiction. To resolve this issue, Sheppard meticulously compares Rhodes’ narrative to the public record. Regardless of the outcome of this search for the truth, Sheppard must then decide whether to share the journal or, like his benefactor, keep it to himself.

Author Joseph A. (Jay) Kayne draws on his life-long interest in politics and 20 years of research and instruction in the field of creativity and counter-intuitive thinking to create this fictional account of one of the seminal moments in American history. He holds a B.A. in American Government from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University. From 2003 to 2010, he served as director of the John W. Altman Institute of Entrepreneurship at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) followed by six years as co-founder and CEO of ImagineIt Today.

Dr. Kayne currently resides on Amelia Island, Florida with his wife Brenda and their rescue dog Bucky.