To Cut A Long Story Short - Softcover

Archer, Jeffrey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330419099 ISBN 13: 9780330419093

Publisher: Pan, 2010

Synopsis

The fourteen short stories in To Cut a Long Story Short show Jeffrey Archer's great skills with a wide variety of character, of subject and of setting, but all with that trademark twist in the tale. Every reader will have their own favourites: the choices run from love at first sight across the train tracks to the cleverest of confidence tricks, from the quirks of the legal profession -- and those who are able to manipulate both sides of the Bar -- to the creative financial talents of a member of Her Majesty's diplomatic service -- but for a good cause. The last story, 'The Grass is Always Greener', is possibly the best piece Archer has written, and will haunt you for the rest of your life.

About this title

Review:

Fraud, deceit, deception, lying, bankruptcy, infidelity: these are the recurrent themes that concern Jeffrey Archer in his fourth collection of short stories, To Cut a Long Story Short. Of the 14 stories gathered here, nine are asterisked as being "based on true incidents" but the whole collection is remarkable for the extent to which Archer's own chequered career finds echoes in his fiction. In "Crime Pays", Kenny Merchant--"that wasn't his real name, but then, little was real about Kenny" finds an ingenious loophole in the Data Protection Act to make a financial killing, while in "The Letter" a wife enjoys reading a kinky love letter from her lover (a well-known novelist) in front of her husband. Her lover recalls making love in "the loo at the Caprice" and fantasises about "being tied to a four-poster bed, with you standing over me in a police sergeant's uniform".

In one of the few stories that does not involve people conning one another, "The Grass is Greener", the moral of the story appears to be that the head of an international bank experiences more pain and personal turmoil than Bill the beggar who sits on the street outside. In "A Change of Heart", a racist white South African devotes himself to doing good for the black community after receiving a black man's heart following a near-fatal car accident. Archer's fans will undoubtedly enjoy this collection but other readers may find its relish for duplicity rather dubious or at best find its sentimental morality rather cloying. --Guy Smit

Review:

Archer has a gift for plot that can only be described as genius, Daily Telegraph

Stylish, witty and constantly entertaining . . . Jeffrey Archer has a natural aptitude for short stories, Daily Telegraph

About this edition

• Publisher: Pan
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0330419099
• ISBN 13: 9780330419093
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304