Still looking for the twist in the tale (A Twist in the Tale - Jeffrey Archer)

Member Name: CPTDANIELS

Product:	A Twist in the Tale - Jeffrey Archer
Date:	06/04/09 (664 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of short stories to choose from

Disadvantages: Badly written, weak stories.

Background:

I seem to have grown up with the name Jeffrey Archer never far away. My first seeing and reading about him as a Conservative Member of Parliament. Then as a celebrated author and finally as a man convicted for Perjury. So I was keen to try one of his books which I hoped would reflect his colourful life.

About the Author:

Jeffrey Archer life story it is said would be an international bestseller, such is its variety and ups and downs. He was an accomplished athlete in his youth and later a Member of Parliament. He has written 14 fiction and 3 non-fiction books, as well as six short story books and three published plays.

About the book:

This is a collection of 12 short stories (between 10 and 50 pages long). These the author has heard, changed and embellished. They as the title suggests have an expected turn or two towards the end of the story.

· The Perfect Murder.
Good story, with interesting characters. Well written and a wonderful twist at the end of the story. 8/10
· Clean Sweep Ignatius.
Dull story about a Minister of Finance dealing with internal corruption in his country. The twist was so obvious, I was glad it was only 12 pages long. 2/10
· A La Carte.
Interesting story. That developed well with good characters and a believable plus very understandable conclusion. 6/10.
· Not the Real Thing.
About a business man who receives a gift for services to a countries development.
It is a predictable but somewhat amusing story. Too short to make it fascinating as you can't get into the characters in 20 pages. 3/10
· Just Good Friends
Story about a man and his friend. This is a story a child could have written better! It was mercilessly short, only 10 pages with a very obvious ending. 1/10
· The Steal.
About a Turkish carpet. This was well written, characters a little simplistic with not much detail on them and an obvious ending 3/10
· Colonel Bullfrog.
This was an interesting story, with good characters and a plot that you were never sure where the story was going, which for me was good. With a very expected conclusion.6/10
· Checkmate.
About two chess club members. Interesting if somewhat unbelievable story, with good characters and well written plot. Unexpected twist to this. 6/10.
· The Wine Taster.
Good if slightly predictable characters in a well written short story. Very short though only 18pages, with a good twist to the tale. 4/10
· A Chapter of Accidents.
About a man who wants to kill a rival who he believes has slept with his wife. Poor characterisation with an obvious and predictable conclusion. 2/10
· The Loophole.
Good and well written story with contrasting characters, unexpected and fascinating conclusion. 6/10
· Christina Rosenthal.
Probably the deepest story with a quality of writing I would expect to see. It was captivating, sad but always interesting. With good unexpected twist. 8/10.

My thoughts on the whole book:

I think this was the first collection of short stories I have read since school. So it was a break from the norm for me, but I liked the idea of reading a complete story in just one sitting. While being able to move between stories if you found you could not relate to one or two of them.

That said I did struggle to really get into many of these stories. As they appeared to lack depth and a real spark to captivate me and convince me about them. With the twist often what I expected and to be honest with obvious and disappointing.

I also found the book a bit dated to be honest. I don't know if it was the author's style but I found it didn't really relate to life in the 21st century. I later found the book was written in 1989, this did not surprise me at all.

I have no doubt Mr Archer is an intelligent man and with his record (sorry about that!) of success as an excellent writer. However, I thought these stories did not do his style justice as I found them predictable and dull.

On a positive note the stories were well researched. In the author's notes at the beginning of the book he tells you that 10 are known incidents. This leaves the reader thinking about all the stories and wondering which the real ones from the made up ones were. Allowing you to decide yourself, I thought that was a good idea.

The Times suggested this book was 'Stylish, witty and constantly entertaining ... Jeffrey Archer has a natural aptitude for short stories.' Frankly I cannot agree with that, as I found his characters in the main dull and characterless and the only reason I continued reading was to find out what the twist in the tale was.


Conclusion:

I would not recommend this collection of short stories. I was disappointed with the author's quality of writing and found it lacked inspiration.
That said I feel I must try one of Archer's best selling novels as I cannot believe they can be as bad as this and maybe a proper novel will do his work justice.


Pages: 269
Publisher: Pan Books
ISBN: 0-330-41900-5
Price: £6.99, Amazon: £5.49
Author's site: www.jeffreyarcher.co.uk
Year: 1988

Thank you for reading my review.

This review was published under my user name last year on Ciao.

@CPTDANIELS April 2009

Summary: Short but obvious stories lacking a bite and real quality