A Prisoner of Birth
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4.8 • 10 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Danny Cartwright and Spencer Craig were born on different sides of the track.
Danny, an East End Cockney, leaves Clement Attlee Comprehensive School at the age of 15 to take up a job at a local garage. He falls in love with Beth, the boss's daughter, and asks her to marry him.
Spencer Craig resides in the West End. A graduate of an English public school and Cambridge University. After leaving university he becomes a criminal barrister and is soon tipped to be the youngest Queen's Counsel of his generation.
Danny and Beth travel up to the West End to celebrate their engagement. They end the evening in a wine bar where Spencer Craig is also celebrating - his 30th birthday, along with a select group of university chums. Their lives will never be the same again. For, an hour later, one of them is arrested for murder, while the other ends up as the Prosecution's chief witness in an Old Bailey trial.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Archer (Kane and Abel) pays homage to Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo in this delicious updating of the adventure classic. Four upper-crust friends from Cambridge University known as the Musketeers conspire to frame Danny Cartwright, an illiterate London East Ender, for the murder of Danny's oldest friend and brother-in-law to be, Bernie Wilson. The outcome of the intriguing trial, which pits a relatively novice defense lawyer against a skilled prosecutor, is a 22-year sentence for Danny. In maximum-security Belmarsh prison, Danny is lucky enough to share a cell with Sir Nicholas Moncrieff, the book's Abb Faria figure, who teaches him to read and write. In a trick familiar to those who know their Dumas, Danny escapes by impersonating Moncrieff and hatches an intricate scheme to punish the Musketeers and clear his name. While Archer doesn't explore the cost to Danny's soul his revenge exacts, the author's firsthand knowledge of prison life and legal maneuvers helps make this a thoroughly enjoyable entertainment. 250,000-copy printing; author tour.
Customer Reviews
A Prisoner of Birth
Best ever, and I have read many of Jeffery Archer. The mind boggles. The last word on the last page is the perfect ending for this Novel. Number One Author.
Ian Walker. I could not put it down.