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Product Description
The latest short-story collection from Britain's bestselling writer, 'the greatest storyteller of our age'. The latest collection from the master storyteller. The fourteen -- all new -- stories show Jeffrey Archer's great skills with a wide variety of character, of subject and of setting, but all with that trademark twist in the tail. Every reader will have their own favourites: the choices run from love at first sight across the railway tracks to the cleverest of confidence tricks, from the quirks of the legal profession to the creative financial talents of a member of Her Majesty's diplomatic service. One of the most intriguing describes a woman who only appears to her lover every six years. And one of the most powerful is the story of a wealthy man who declares himself bankrupt in order to discover which of his family and friends will support him. The last story, 'The Grass is Always Greener', is possibly the best piece Archer has written. To Cut a Long Story Short is Jeffrey Archer's fourth story collection, and shows him at the top of his form.
Amazon.com Review
To Cut a Long Story Short reads like a series of modern fairy tales. In each story, Jeffrey Archer presents a moral problem, and a character finds himself tested in a dark hour. Evil manifests itself in the form of selfish relatives, corrupt cops, racist men. Good arrives in the form of unselfish minor characters who suddenly emerge as the real center of the story, or lost souls who come out the other side of corruption and renounce their old ways.
In "The Endgame" Cornelius Barrington decides to fake a bankruptcy. As one of the richest men in his small town, he hopes his sudden plunge into poverty will reveal the true character of his friends and relatives. He calls in debts, asks to borrow money from those he has lent to in the past, only to be turned away time and again. After lunch Cornelius took a bus into town--a novel experience. It was some time before he located a bus stop, and then he discovered that the conductor didn't have change for a twenty pound note. His first call after he had been dropped off in the town centre was to the local estate agent, who didn't seem surprised to see him. Cornelius was delighted to find how quickly the rumour of his financial demise must be spreading. "The Endgame" is a complex tale with a clear message. Not all the stories in To Cut a Long Story Short attempt such weightiness. "The Expert Witness" is a delightful parody of the legal system, a portrait of two pub mates--a lawyer and an expert witness--who often find themselves facing off in the courtroom, pretending not to know each other. Certain pieces (glimpses, vignettes) last a mere two pages, but whatever the length or weight of the story, throughout this collection Archer has a light touch, a quick wit, and a thorough understanding of the mechanics of suspense. --Emily White
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