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Sons of Fortune by Jeffrey Archer — book cover

Sons of Fortune

by Jeffrey Archer
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Overview


#1 New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Archer has mesmerized thousands of readers over the years with his riveting novels and unforgettable characters. Now he returns with another remarkable novel that proves he is still one of the most gifted writers of all time...

In hushed maternity ward, an infant dies, while twin brothers thrive. By morning, one mother is told that her only child is doing fine. Another is told that she has tragically lost one of her sons...

Twins seperated at birth, Nathaniel Cartwright and Fletcher Davenport have been raised in different worlds, and have both thrived among the best and brightest of their generation. In an era of violent change, freee love, and blind ambition, Nat goes off to war, while Fletcher enters political combat. With each choice they make--in love and career, through tragedy and triumph--their lives mirror one another...until a high-profile murder case brings them together. Until a high-stakes political battle turns them into rivals. Until a decades-old secret is exposed...and two powerful men must confront their bonds of fate and fortune.

Synopsis

#1 New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Archer has mesmerized thousands of readers over the years with his riveting novels and their unforgettable characters. Now he returns in another remarkable novel that proves he is still one of our most gifted writers of all time....

Sons Of Fortune

In a hushed maternity ward, an infant dies, while twin brothers thrive. By morning, one mother is told that her only child is doing fine. Another is told that she has tragically lost one of her sons...

Twins separated at birth, Nathaniel Cartwright and Fletcher Davenport have been raised in different worlds, and have both thrived among the best and brightest of their generation. In an era of violent change, free love, and blind ambition, Nat goes off to fight a war, while Fletcher enters political combat. With each choice they make-in love and career, through tragedy and triumph-their lives mirror one another... Until a high-profile murder case brings them together. Until a high-stakes political battle turns them into rivals. Until a decades-old secret is suddenly exposed...and two powerful men must confront their bonds of fate and fortune...

Publishers Weekly

Veteran novelist and British politician Archer (Kane and Abel) is currently serving a prison sentence for perjury, so readers can perhaps forgive him if this latest effort falls short of his usual standard. The implausibly plotted novel follows fraternal twin boys separated at birth by a bizarre set of circumstances. Nat Cartwright and Fletcher Davenport are born in Hartford, Conn., in the early 1950s. A meddlesome nurse sends them home with different families. Nat is raised in a lower-middle-class household, attends the University of Connecticut, serves heroically in Vietnam and goes into banking. Fletcher, the wealthy Yalie, becomes a lawyer and a politician. The men are repeatedly thrown into competition with each other, whether for admission to college or in their professional lives, their rivalry culminating when they both run for governor of their home state. The characters are too thin, and their respective worlds too littered with clich s, to offer a satisfying portrait of the baby boomer generation. Contrived plot twists offer little distraction, while the dialogue sometimes reads like a set of photo captions-information without emotion. "When you think about it, they are the obvious predator," says Nat about a takeover threat. "Fairchild's is the largest bank in the state; seventy-one branches with almost no serious rivals." Archer is usually a skillful storyteller, but he drops the ball here. (Jan.) Forecast: Archer, who has had to resign from political office three times because of financial and sexual scandals, usually draws reliable sales, but this weak offering may break the mold. Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

About the Author, Jeffrey Archer

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.

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Editorials

From the Publisher


"Archer provides a fine read with a keen sense of the good and the bad in people and the importance of kinship...[he] masterfully creates a great villian in Elliot, who jumps off the pages in all of his vengeful and shady glamour" -- Los Angeles Times

"One of the top ten storytellers in the world." -Los Angeles Times

"A master at mixing power, politics, and profit into fiction." -Entertainment Weekly

"Archer is a master entertainer." -Time

"Archer plots with skill, and keeps you turning the pages." -The Boston Globe

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

"A storyteller in the class of Alexandre Dumas...unsurpassed skill...making the reader wonder intensely what will happen next." -The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

Veteran novelist and British politician Archer (Kane and Abel) is currently serving a prison sentence for perjury, so readers can perhaps forgive him if this latest effort falls short of his usual standard. The implausibly plotted novel follows fraternal twin boys separated at birth by a bizarre set of circumstances. Nat Cartwright and Fletcher Davenport are born in Hartford, Conn., in the early 1950s. A meddlesome nurse sends them home with different families. Nat is raised in a lower-middle-class household, attends the University of Connecticut, serves heroically in Vietnam and goes into banking. Fletcher, the wealthy Yalie, becomes a lawyer and a politician. The men are repeatedly thrown into competition with each other, whether for admission to college or in their professional lives, their rivalry culminating when they both run for governor of their home state. The characters are too thin, and their respective worlds too littered with clich s, to offer a satisfying portrait of the baby boomer generation. Contrived plot twists offer little distraction, while the dialogue sometimes reads like a set of photo captions-information without emotion. "When you think about it, they are the obvious predator," says Nat about a takeover threat. "Fairchild's is the largest bank in the state; seventy-one branches with almost no serious rivals." Archer is usually a skillful storyteller, but he drops the ball here. (Jan.) Forecast: Archer, who has had to resign from political office three times because of financial and sexual scandals, usually draws reliable sales, but this weak offering may break the mold. Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Twins separated at birth are reunited decades later after many, many twists of fate. The Oxford-educated Archer (The Eleventh Commandment, 1998, etc.) has deposited yet another pile of pages upon us but will likely escape prosecution for the crime. This time, he gives us a pair of twins born in 1950s Connecticut. Through a chain of obtusely convoluted events, the boys are mixed up at the hospital and raised by separate parents, never knowing of their siblinghood. It's a long, long road until they meet again. One, Nat, is a smart but headstrong lad who could have gotten out of Vietnam but feels honor-bound to go, returns a celebrated hero after helping rescue some trapped soldiers, and goes into banking. The other, Fletcher, equally smart and headstrong, becomes a lawyer. Each marries a gorgeous, smart woman and starts riding a rocket to the top. Pretty much the only difference between the two is that Nat has a nemesis from school, Roger Elliot, a cartoonishly rotten brat who always plays dirty. Elliot is an archetype of archetypes who pops up occasionally just to inflict a wrong upon saintly Nat. The 1970s grumble on with only the occasional nod to the passage of time, and eventually the twins are both running for governor of Connecticut-Nat a Republican, Fletcher Democrat-and a final dirty trick by Elliot brings them together in a courtroom where Fletcher defends Nat against a murder charge-while the election is still going on. Most distressing about this dreary business is not that Archer's plot points are so ridiculous or contrived, but that he fails to make it at all entertaining. Flat, bland, covered in wastelands of cliché.

Book Details

Published
December 1, 2003
Publisher
St. Martin's Press
Pages
544
Format
Mass Market Paperback
ISBN
9780312993535

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