Cat O' Nine Tales

Praise for Jeffrey Archer's Short Stories

"There isn't a better story-teller alive."

—-Larry King

"Archer is a master entertainer."

—-Time

"Archer is a terrific story-teller, and meets the reader's ultimate tests—-to want to turn the page to see what happens next."

—-Sunday Times, London

"Probably the greatest storyteller of our age."

—-Mail on Sunday, London

"Jeffrey Archer has a gift for plot that can only be described as genius."

—-Daily Telegraph, London

"Cunning plots, silken style . . . Archer plays a cat-and-mouse game with the reader."

—-The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Archer (Kane & Abel) put his time in prison to fine literary use, as evidenced by the 12 stellar entries in his fifth story collection, nine of which are based on tales he heard from fellow inmates while incarcerated. Three others he composed after his release. Highlights include "Maestro," in which a restaurant owner finds a way to launder money so that the tax man can't collect; "The Man Who Robbed His Own Post Office," about a hardworking couple who steal from their own business rather than see it all taken from them; and "It Can't Be October Already," in which a man uses the system to beat the system. The economy and precision of Archer's prose never fails to delight. The criminal doesn't always get away with his crime and justice doesn't always prevail, but the reader wins with each and every story. Drawings by the inimitable Ronald Searle are a bonus. (June)

A political aspirant turned author, Jeffrey Archer seems to delight in conspiracy and simple twists of fate in his fiction, even as these forces have shaped a rocky course in his own life. Misfortune led Archer to write the book that began his career, but fate seems to have smiled on his bestselling books.