A PRISONER OF BIRTH
Jeffrey Archer
St. Martin’s Press
Thriller
ISBN: 9780312379292

Jeffrey Archer has had a remarkable run --- one that has taken him to the top of bestseller lists for fiction and nonfiction works, to both houses of British Parliament and to British prisons. When Archer is said to be known as “The World’s Master Storyteller,” one cannot determine if it is indeed meant as a compliment without knowing the predispositions toward Archer of the person making the statement. However, there is no question after reading A PRISONER OF BIRTH, Archer’s latest work, that such a title should be applied in the positive.

A PRISONER OF BIRTH is a literary novel in the classic sense; it is impossible to read the book without thinking of Charles Dickens’s A TALE OF TWO CITIES or any number of works by O. Henry. Yet this is a contemporary tale, from beginning to end, set very much in the “now.” It begins with a London couple, Danny Cartwright and Beth Wilson, celebrating their engagement with Bernie Wilson, Danny’s best friend and Beth’s brother. Before the night is over, Bernie will be dead, Danny will be framed for his murder, and Beth will have lost the two men she has loved most --- one to the void, and the other to a misapplied justice. Danny is sent to prison thanks to the machinations of a quartet of friends --- a barrister, an aristocrat, a popular actor and a successful real estate agent --- who, directly and indirectly, are responsible for Bernie’s death.

The ironic sense of humor of a prison guard results in Danny sharing a cell with Nicholas Moncrieff, an inmate whose jailing is as unlikely as Danny’s. It is Nicholas who, both directly and indirectly, provides Danny with the means by which he is able to gain his freedom from incarceration and begin a studied and relentless revenge against the men who have sullied his name and ruined his life. How he is able to pull this off provides the meat for this complex and intricate tale, supported by a cast of unforgettable characters who come together in a spellbinding narrative, bookended by nerve-wracking courtroom dramas wherein freedom and an endless love hang in the balance.

There are certain elements of A PRISONER OF BIRTH that require some suspension of disbelief: the close resemblance between Danny and Nicholas, upon which so much hinges, seems just a bit contrived, and Danny is almost too quick a study under Nicholas’s tutoring to reasonably be believed. Such complaints, though, pale in comparison to the body of this story, which will leave readers alternately stunned and cheering --- and furiously turning pages until they reach the shocking conclusion.

    --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.

© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.

Back to top.