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Beach Reads: 'Worthy Of Trust And Confidence'

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - This week's summer Beach Reads title is a thriller debut novel that puts forth a new theory about the assassination of JFK.

It's called "Worthy of Trust and Confidence" and it's written by former secret agent Jerry Ballarotto who gleaned the characters from people he met during his career.

The author discussed his motivation to write the novel with WCBS 880's Pat Farnack:

JB: It came to be after the years I spent in the Secret Service and then the years I spent after that as a prosecutor. I was in the United States Attorney's office. And then the 20 years I spent as a criminal defense attorney. Seeing the same people often but from a different perspective, which is how the characters emerged in the book.

Beach Reads: 'Worthy Of Trust And Confidence'

PF: Well, give me a thumbnail sketch of the story, if you would.

JB: The story begins in the summer of 1963 and it's about a young, Italian-American secret service agent. Jake is in the Newark field office. It's really about the Secret Service and their counterfeiting investigative responsibilities.

PF: The JFK assassination must have been a really dark day for the Secret Service and you weave an interesting alternative conspiracy theory.

JB: I have often asked the question -- In our history, many nations have done terrible things to the United States. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. At the end of the war, we made up with Japan and they became one of our greatest allies. Vietnam, you just look at Senator McCain and other great Americans that were tortured for years by the North Vietnamese and we made up with the Vietnamese. We've done this time after time after time. What happens with Castro and Cuba? Why do we continue to hold this grudge? And I think someday we're going to find out that Castro had a hand in the assassination of John Kennedy and that's why.

Castro isn't the only questionable character in the book. Ballarotto also weaves the New Jersey mob into his narrative.

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