Staff Picks Blog

Before starting this novel of revenge and treachery, you will want to make sure that you own or have access to some of those rubber finger tips, as you will assuredly need them if you are going to keep up with this page turner. Chapter breaks act only as mild speed bumps in this 500-page tomb of escapist fiction. Loosely patterned after Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, the story centers around the redemption and  revenge of an illiterate London East Ender who is framed and falsely imprisoned for the murder of his best friend, who is actually killed by four well connected, upper-class louts. It was only after I finished the novel that I learned that Jeffrey Archer had spent two years behind bars on a perjury conviction. His first-hand knowledge certainly gives added legitimacy to the prison scenes. Indeed, it is not much of a stretch to imagine Archer himself using the novel’s characters to exact his own revenge on those who imprisoned him. If you are heading to the beach, a long airport stretch, or you simply "just want to get away" for a while, pick up this book, and be gone.