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Overview
If Danny Cartwright had proposed to Beth Wilson on any other day, he would not have been arrested and charged with the murder of his best friend. But when the prosecution witnesses happen to be a group of four upper-crust college friends—a barrister, a popular actor, an aristocrat, and the youngest partner in an established firm’s history—who is going to believe Danny’s side of the story?
Danny is sentenced to twenty-two years and sent to Belmarsh prison, the highest-security jail in the land, from where no inmate has ever escaped. But Spencer Craig, Lawrence Davenport, Gerald Payne, and Toby Mortimer all underestimate Danny’s determination to seek revenge—and the extent to which his fiancée Beth will go in pursuit of justice.
Synopsis
International bestseller Jeffrey Archer returns with his most enthralling novel since Kane and Abel
The Washington Post - Patrick Anderson
Readers who stick with this 500-page novel will eventually decide to ignore its improbabilities and focus on whether Danny can get out of the mess. Of course, anyone with half a brain knows how this morality play will turn out, but Archer tosses in various plot twists and a slam-bang final courtroom scene that will leave his fans exhausted but satisfied.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
Danny Cartwright is doomed by circumstance. After a quartet of cynical Cambridge friends decide to make him the patsy for a murder one of them had committed, illiterate Danny is tried, convicted, and sentenced to 22 years at hellish Belmarsh Prison. Mind-tormenting incarceration gives him ample opportunity to polish his reading skills and, more central to the plot, his taste for revenge.From the Publisher
“A compelling read.” —Newsday
“Archer plots with skill, and keeps you turning the pages.” —The Boston Globe
“Thoroughly enjoyable.”—Publishers Weekly
“Dynamite…plot twists and a slam-bang finale.”—The Washington Post
Patrick Anderson
Readers who stick with this 500-page novel will eventually decide to ignore its improbabilities and focus on whether Danny can get out of the mess. Of course, anyone with half a brain knows how this morality play will turn out, but Archer tosses in various plot twists and a slam-bang final courtroom scene that will leave his fans exhausted but satisfied.—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Though Archer's new novel is a porridge that mushes The Count of Monte Cristo together with The Prince and the Pauper, Roger Allam gives an award-worthy performance in this crisply paced production. Most challenging is that the main character thinks like East Ender Danny, but often speaks like the nobleman Nick. Allam slides gracefully between the two accents. He also performs the many voices of an unwieldy cast of lawyers, judges, Swiss bankers, guards, police officers, a bartender, a house cleaner and a soap star actor. Sometimes, Allam takes some shortcuts, such as giving all the judges sniffy voices, but he delights in individualizing the better drawn minor characters like Big Al, a former Scottish soldier, and Larry Hunsucker, a Texas oilman and philatelist. A bonus interview reveals little about Archer, except for his spending 300 hours on a draft. Simultaneous release with the St. Martin's hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 14). (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
Colorful, bestselling novelist Archer has written a modern spin on Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo. Garage mechanic Danny Cartwright and his sweetheart Beth, joined by her brother, Bernie, celebrate their engagement at a posh West End night spot. Beth is insulted by several drunken toffs, and a fight ensues; Bernie is fatally stabbed, and Danny takes the fall because the toffs have fabricated a cover story. He is convicted and serves time in Belmarsh prison, where Archer himself served part of a sentence for perjury. Danny's cell mate is the aristocratic Sir Nicholas Moncrieff, who just happens to resemble Danny and teaches him to talk with a posh accent and comport himself in the style of an English gentleman. Danny manages to escape from Belmarsh and seeks revenge on his accusers in a manner that is somewhat reminiscent of the protagonists in Archer's early novel Kane and Abel. Noted actor Roger Allam brings professionalism to his narration, with accents developed where necessary but not always fully. The interview with Archer is an interesting finish to the book and showcases audio production in a way that a print copy cannot. Recommended for large public libraries with a high circulation of Archer's work. [Macmillan Audio also has two versions of A Prisoner of Birth available: 13 CDs. unabridged. 16½ hrs. 2008. ISBN 9781427202833, 9781427203052]
—David Faucheux