A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.59 You Save: $25.36 (91%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of A Prisoner of Birth
Book Review: A Good, not Brilliant, Read.
Summary: 3 Stars
I've read all of Jeffery Archer's books, and love a good mystery, so much that when I find a good book, I keep on reading until the end. I really wanted to love this book, but it was a slow start and parts were somewhat contrived. I did read to the end, but will only recommend it as a beach or dead-of-winter read.Book Review: A Prisoner of Birth
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read many of Jeffrey Archer's books and have enjoyed them all. I never thought he would be able to write something as wonderful as "Cane and Able" but he has. "A Prisoner of Birth" is by far his best novel and one of the best books I have read in a very long time. It was a very hard book to put down. It keeps your attention until the very end and at the end you are not disappointed.Book Review: A Real Disappointment
Summary: 1 Stars
I have enjoyed several of Jeffrey Archer's previous books, most particularly Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, and Kane & Abel, and his book of short stories: A Quiver of Arrows. His latest book, A Prisoner of Birth, is a real disappointment. It is far fetched and full of unlikely coincidences. It is also badly written, with too many clichés. Don't waste your time or money on this rubbish.Book Review: A Tossed Archer Salad
Summary: 4 Stars
What do you get if you mix up a good portion of Archer's works together and toss them into something new? A Prisoner of Birth is a pretty good idea of what happens.
Archer fans can see a lot of his previous characters in Danny Cartright, who is sentenced for a crime he didn't commit. Set free and in new circumstances by fate and the admiration of men who believe he's innocent, he suddenly is forced to fight a battle against the unjust on two fronts. He doesn't seek revenge or vengeance as much as poetic justice - and all within the letter, if not the spirit, of the law.
Book Review: A VERY SATISFYING READ
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this one! Of course I have to admit to being one of those people who feel that the work of Alexandre Dumas in his Count of Monte Cristo is one of the fifty best novels in the English language. This book by author Jeffrey Archer is a wonderful update and take- off from that classic work by Dumas. This novel takes place primarily in England, although does move about a bit later in the book.
The plot line has been pretty well covered here by other reviews so I will not dwell on that at length. Suffice to say that we have a poor young man who is set up and framed by four quite wealthy and privileged young men for the crime of murder. Danny, our hero, is an uneducated mechanic who cannot read or write. He is brilliant though, and through a series of fortunate circumstances, ends up sharing a cell with two remarkable individuals who transform Danny's life. Again, the author is sticking to the Dumas work pretty closely.
This work is completely filled with twists and turns and just when you think you have if figured out, or that all is lost, the author neatly twirls events and you are off in another direction. The plot is rather complicated but is surprisingly easy to follow as are the well developed characters. This can be and should be classified as a thriller, but it is so much more than that. Archer's knowledge of the legal system and prison life allow the story to be told in a realistic fashion (yes, I admit that the author does stretch a few things here and there, but hey folks, this is a novel meant to entertain, not a T.V. documentary...yawn). This work also takes a close look at the English class system, at its worse and the play between the lower and upper classes of society, i.e. the have and have not's.
This is a rather large novel, which in a way is unfortunate, because if you are like me, once you finish the first page or two, you will be hooked and you are going to be there for awhile. Now I fully admit to loving to read a good revenge book and this is one of the best in that genre I have read in quite some time. No spoilers here, I hope, but I found this to be a very satisfying read!
Recommend this one highly. If you are into this type of novel, I cannot see how you will not like it.
Don Blankenship
The Ozarks