Nothing New from Archer (Sons of Fortune - Jeffrey Archer)

Member Name: MaryanneH

Product:	Sons of Fortune - Jeffrey Archer
Date:	14/08/04 (142 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An OK Book

Disadvantages: He's recycling previous books

Jeffrey Archer is an infamous man, throughout his somewhat dubious political career there has been no doubt that he could write, readable, gripping and popular books. So when I came across his new offering, I read the blurb on the back and was really looking forward to a good story. Now if this had been the first Archer book I have ever read that is what I would have got.

The plot in brief is two mothers gave birth at the same time, one to healthy twins and the other to a little boy who did not survive the night. As one of the nurses in the hospital was due to become nanny to the only child, whose parents were incredibly wealthy she switched the babies with one of the twins. So the two boys grew up separately from completely different financial backgrounds, but both end up in competing private schools (one on a scholarship) and have an overlapping circle of friends, including both falling for the same girl. Throughout all of this they do not meet, until one of the brothers is on trial for a murder he did not commit and the other defends him. They eventually end up fighting for the same political office as governor of the state.

As with many of the Archer offerings there is a lot of what he knows in the book, private school, university entrance exams, election campaigns, that sort of thing. The problem is, we?ve heard it all before. There is a section in the book relating to bank takeover ? Kane and Able was centred around a similar thing. There are whole paragraphs in the book that could be exchanged with paragraphs from the Prodigal Daughter when they are in the midst of an election campaign and frankly if you changed the names no one would notice the difference.

There are some elements of originality in the book, one of the brothers marries a Korean lady that he met during the Vietnam war, and she has a secret that naturally comes ou
t in the midst of the election campaign. This causes real problems for the family and ultimately ends in the murder, mentioned above. The brothers eventually find out about the switch towards the end of the book, when one needs to give blood to save the other.

The book is very typical of Archer he uses the same phrases that we come across in many of his other books, ?He knew he would love her for the rest of his life?, being one of his favourites. The idea behind this book is good but I do feel that he could have made more of it, the brother issue only really accounted for a chapter of it at most, there were some good links between the two lives but again I think that could have gone further to make the brother issue more relevant.

All in all this is an ok book, not great but if you have never read an Archer book before its as good as any to start with, although he has most definitely written better, and 4 years in prison with nothing to do but write I do think this is lacking in imagination.

Current availability at Amazon at £5.59.

Capital letters courtesy of: http://www.chuckleweb.co.uk/fixit.php

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