A Twist in the Tale

The 12 stories were all good but I specially liked the first (the Perfect Murther) and the last stories (Cristina Rosenthal, which made me cry).

I am a big fan of Jeffrey Archer. I love his long novels and deep characterizations. This book was a bit different for me. When I first purchased it, I didn't know it was a collection of short stories. After reading the first story, I left it sitting by my beside for several weeks, then picked it up and read the rest in two days. The only reason I set it aside was that it surprised me when the first story ended--that's when I discovered it was a book of short stories. (I enjoy Jeffrey Archer so much that I bought it quickly, just looking at his name on the cover, passing through an airport, not noticing this book was not a novel like all his others.)Most of these stories can be read in 30 minutes, while the first story might take one hour. The book is very appropriately named, because the very end of each story has a bizarrre "twist" that you don't expect. The twist happens literally in the last sentence or two of each story, and the reader is completely surprised. Compared to most novels, these stories move incredibly fast. In spite of that, characterization is revealed well, as the stories move. There is quite a variety in the stories presented--in one story, he even writes as a woman. I highly enjoyed this book. Anyone who enjoys either short stories, or loves Jeffrey Archer's novels will enjoy it, too. The only reason I have rated it four stars instead of five, is that I personally enjoy novels much more than short stories-short stories end far too quickly for me.

The inimitable Jeffrey Archer's unravelling of an intricately-woven web of stories in A Twist in the Tale results in an unpredictable, albeit lightweight, mosaic of twelve short stories which bursts forth with tension and exercises a vice-like grip on the reader. Once again, Archer's mastery of the dramatic form, his ear for the way people talk and his sardonic wit make the book an interesting read. One thing is for sure, though, he is one of those [very] good writers for whom boredom is a cardinal transgression and who seems unable to put his foot wrong.After churning out a spate of bestselling novels, like Kane and Abel, The Prodigal Daughter, Shall We Tell The President?, First Among Equals, A Matter of Honour and Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, Archer has come up with his second collection of short stories; the stories here are nicely paced and neatly concluded, with characters and scenarios that leap from the pages with a vibrancy and raw intensity seldom found in short stories of such nature. The whole collection does not totter on tedium; neither does it lack coherence nor structure; in fact, the pleasure of this work lies in its depiction of the ordinary and mundane.This time, a murky broth of marital tryst, Machiavellian cunning and duplicity, promiscuity, sexual peccadilloes, fraud, corruption, murder, treachery and webs of cunning deceit are all grist to Archer's story-spinning mill. Nothing is what it seems to be and the unexpected never happens at all. The tension never relaxes but keeps on mounting in most of the stories and one reads ravenously, dreading the moment when it all comes to an end. What is more, the conclusions catch you unaware and never cease to surprise with their savage twists.In "The Perfect Murder", a philandering husband calls unexpectedly on his mistress and sees another man leaving her apartment. Accusing her of unfaithfulness, an altercation ensues. In a moment of unbridled rage, he clenches his fist and takes a swipe at her. She dies of a broken jaw and lacerations of the skull. He leaves the scene unobserved and tips off Scotland Yard so that the other man is detained and charged with his mistress' murder. Has he committed "the perfect murder"? Indeed, a tantalising and skilfully contrived appetiser to A Twist in the Tale. From this moment, Archer has the reader in his grip and under his spell.Consider also a touchingly full-bodied Jewish-Gentile love affair in "Christina Rosenthal" with complex emotional consequences where secrets of the past can change the pattern of the future forever; a heated altercation in a golf clubhouse bar between two cronies in "The Loopholes"; a rivalry rooted in a childhood obsession with eating cornflakes and collecting the top flaps of cornflake boxes in "Not the Real Thing"; a sexy game of chess with an equally sexy stranger in "Checkmate" where the stakes are far, far higher than money; and the ritual of wine-tasting with a bizarre flourish in "Honour Among Thieves". The

A collection of fiction you can't possibly put down. The book is full of variety and suspense; the stories are unpredictable and original. There is not a second rate story in this collection.

So beautifully are these short stories written, you will not believe me unless you read them. Yes, every story has a "Twist" and you could never have guessed how it would be. I liked the story "We are just good friends" one of the best among them. And then there is the jury in one of the stories....Ok ,Ok I will not tell you more, so get your hands on the book.