Like so many Board members, I have particpated in the fits of calculation we've gone through about the year(s) of the war, of Sonny's murder, of the Don's meeting, and Michael's time in Sicily and subsequent return, not to mention the dons' massacre. Maybe we can put a good part of it to rest.

Just as we notice something in the films that we didn't notice before, I notice things in the novel that I never noticed before. This is one. It takes place as the last paragraph where Puzo describes the last time Michael and Kay see each other before Sicily:

"She had never felt so close to him, never so much in love and if someone had told her she would not see Michael again until three years passed, she would not have been able to bear the anguish of it."

So, Michael murders Sollozzo in January '46? Do the math.