Walking The Razor’s Edge: The Dutchman and The Baron is a nonfiction history/true crime book written by Tommy and Hilde Wilkens. The hero of this historical drama is the Dutch journalist Willem Oltmans, who dedicated ten years of his life to untangling the complicated and unanswered questions surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald, whose death at the hands of Jack Ruby eliminated any chance of understanding his real role in the plot that led to the death of a president. While Oltmans’ investigations would lead him to many different sources, his major focus was on the role of Baron George de Mohrenschildt, whose unlikely friendship with Oswald was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Any American who was alive at the time probably remembers quite vividly where they were on November 22, 1963 when the horrific news of JFK’s assassination was announced on the radio. The long-anticipated report of the Warren Commission seemed to raise more questions than it did answers to the circumstances behind the nation’s greatest tragedy. Why wasn’t Oswald’s request for an attorney granted, and why wasn’t there even a transcript of his interviews during his brief incarceration before Ruby killed him?

Walking The Razor’s Edge is a fascinating look at the assassination of JFK through the eyes of a journalist who valued getting to the truth over popularity or governmental approbation. I loved the biographical aspects found throughout this story as I got to know Willem Oltmans and marvelled at the odd friendship he cultivated with George de Mohrenschildt, whose links to the Kennedys, the Russians and the CIA are examined and brought to light. The authors do a superlative job of presenting Oltmans’ findings and detailing the way he was discredited for doing his job. Walking The Razor’s Edge is truly exciting as only good, solid history can be. The photographs that accompany this work serve so well to add dimension to the real-life details. This book addresses questions I’ve grown up wondering about, and it does so in a well-written and compelling way. Walking The Razor’s Edge: The Dutchman and The Baron is most highly recommended.

 

 

Genre Non-Fiction