Twelve Red Herrings
A captivating collection of stories from international no.1 bestseller Jeffrey Archer
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4.8 • 13 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
‘Archer plays a subtle cat-and-mouse game with the reader in twelve original short stories that end, more often than not, with our collective whiskers twitching in surprise’ - THE NEW YORK TIMES
*****
A collection of twelve captivating short stories from the number one internationally bestselling author Jeffrey Archer.
A wrongly convicted murderer exacts a flawless plan of revenge. Headlights in a rearview mirror pursue a female traveler on a lonely stretch of road. A serial bride secures her future by marrying only the wealthiest of men. And an escaped Iraqi with a price on his head pays an involuntary visit to his homeland.
From Cambridge to New York, Hertfordshire to Istanbul, Jeffrey Archer explores what happens when people are put under pressure: how they will react when they have an opportunity to seize, a crucial problem to solve, a danger to avoid? But expect the unexpected and you’ll still be surprised, because buried in each tale is a red herring – a wicked diversion that Archer challenges readers to uncover for themselves.
Twelve Red Herrings is an artfully entertaining, suspenseful set of stories from the bestselling author of the Clifton Chronicles and the William Warwick series.
Nothing Ventured PB was an instant Sunday Time’s no.1 bestseller when it published 19.03.2020
*****
Praise for Jeffrey Archer:
'Archer has a gift for plot that can only be described as genius' – The Daily Telegraph
'Probably the greatest storyteller of our age' – The Mail on Sunday
'Outstanding . . . white-knuckle suspense and witty dénouements' – Daily Express
'Archer hits the bull’s-eye with an exemplary collection of short stories' – Daily Mail
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Archer does a passable O. Henry in his third story collection (after A Twist in the Tale ), though without that master's depth of feeling or irony. Many of the 12 stories here, all of which feature false clues and twist endings, are based on ``known'' incidents; the fact that the weakest ones are not suggests that Archer's love of plot may exceed his unaided grasp. The leadoff yarn, ``Trial and Error,'' for instance, an original but attenuated tale of a wronged man's thirst for revenge, kicks in only with its predictably wry twist. Also original but flaccid is the last story, which features four rather obvious alternative endings that the reader can tack onto an opening gambit about a man picking up a woman at the theater. The adaptive tales are generally stronger. ``Chunnel Vision'' offers a classic red herring by which Archer uses a jilted woman's revenge on her lover to divert our attention from the real threat to the lover's happiness. Similarly, the chilling ``Never Stop on the Motorway'' plays on our expectations about an endangered woman's plight. Written in strong, clean prose and ranging in tone from charming to achingly suspenseful, these tales, mostly entertaining but often slight, offer, like much of Archer's work, more craft than art. $365,000 ad/promo; audio rights to HarperAudio.
