A Prisoner of Birth
by Jeffrey Archer
St. Martin's Press
$27.95, hard cover, 501 pages, 0-312-37929-3 (2008).
Okay, so I'm probably the last person on the planet not to have read a previous book by Jeffrey Archer. But I confess, I haven't.
Despite the fact that he's an international bestseller and has written novels, short stories, plays and practically everything else, I haven't read a word. Why? Mostly because I convinced myself long ago that British stories just didn't interest me – even if they were about criminal proceedings (as is this one) at the Old Bailey.
I thought that the unfamiliar type of legal proceedings and the cultural differences in the British would make reading this type of novel more difficult to relate to and cause it to be less satisfying.
I was wrong.
This carefully written and intricately plotted thriller will have you reading well into the night. It begins with an unsophisticated and good-hearted young man being framed for the murder of his best friend. On the night Danny Cartwright proposed to Beth Wilson, he is arrested and charged with murder. Since there are four prosecution witnesses against him, he stands little chance at trial and is found guilty.
Danny is sentenced to Belmarsh prison, a high security jail from which no one has ever escaped. But, this being a novel of determination and revenge, Danny finds a way out and the chase is on to find and obtain justice from the witnesses who not only testified against him, but were guilty themselves of murdering his best friend.
It's an exciting story and the courtroom scenes are expertly handled. And I found that instead of being put off by the unfamiliar English manners and colloquialisms, I began to enjoy them.
In one scene, Danny is in prison being visited by his fiancée Beth:
"How's the garage coming along?" asked Danny, changing the subject.
"Dad's slowing down a bit," said Beth. "I wish I could convince him to give up smoking. He never stops coughing, but he won't listen to anything Mum or I have to say on the subject."
"So who has he made manager?"
"Trevor Sutton."
"Trevor Sutton? He couldn't run a whelk stall."
"No one else seemed to want the job," said Beth.
"Then you'd better keep a close eye on the books," said Danny.
"Why? You don't think Trevor is on the fiddle?"
"No, but only because he can't add up."
Don't make the mistake I did of overlooking writers like Jeffrey Archer. This novel will have you reaching out for other British writers.
Buy it on Amazon here.
If you enjoyed Archer, might his suggest two of his novels: The Fourth Estate and First Among Equals. I think you would enjoy both.
Posted by: Bryan Sims | June 06, 2008 at 07:55 AM