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Loading... Cat O'Nine Tales: And Other Storiesby Jeffrey Archer
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won't like
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  AnnieMod | Oct 6, 2009 |  These twelve (nine prison and three additional) short stories are based on what fellow inmates told Archer while he spent two years in prison for "perjury and perverting the course of justice". Most of them focused on how people tried to swindle money from others in one way or another. My introduction to Archer wasn't at all what I expected. The stories were somewhat interesting to begin with, but most ended flat - even with the minor twists. My intention is to read Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less . . . sometime, but I'm not rushing to pick it up. (2.75/5) Originally posted on: "Thoughts of Joy..." (  ) ThoughtsofJoyLibrary | Mar 11, 2009 | Excellent and intertaining (  ) carrolann | Aug 7, 2008 | This book is a collection of twelve short stories, nine of which are ideas he picked up while in prison. The stories are quite enlightening, insightful and engaging. All twelve of them. I enjoyed reading all of them immensely. My favourites are The Man Who Robbed His Own Post Office, Don't Drink The Water, It Can't Be October Already (which has a sad postscript at the end), The Red King (with the most cunning thief, I must say!), The Wisdom of Solomon, Charity Begins At Home and The Alibi (patience is a virtue). ( ) larawannabe | Jun 21, 2008 | fun stories ( ) Kaethe | May 23, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0312362641, Hardcover)Cat o’Nine Tales is the fifth collection of irresistible short stories from the master storyteller. Ingeniously plotted, with richly drawn characters and Jeffrey Archer’s trademark of deliciously unexpected conclusions, this new collection has the added bonus of thirteen charming illustrations by the internationally acclaimed artist Ronald Searle. Some of these twelve stories were inspired by the two years Jeffrey Archer spent in prison, including the story of a company chairman who tries to poison his wife while on a trip to St. Petersburg---with unexpected consequences. “The Red King” is a tale about a con man who discovers that an English lord requires one more chess piece to complete a set that would be worth a fortune. In another tale of deception, “The Commissioner,” a Bombay con artist ends up in the morgue after he uses the police chief as bait in his latest scam. “The Perfect Murder” reveals how a convict manages to remove an old enemy while he’s locked up in jail, and then set up two prison officers as his alibi. In “Charity Begins at Home,” an accountant realizes he has achieved nothing in his life, and sets out to make a fortune before he retires. And then there is Archer’s favorite, “In the Eye of the Beholder,” in which a handsome star athlete falls in love with a three-hundred-pound woman . . . who happens to be the ninth-richest woman in Italy. Jeffrey Archer is the only author to have topped international bestseller lists with his fiction, nonfiction, and short stories. Cat o’Nine Tales is Archer at his best: witty, poignant, sad, surprising, and unforgettable. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:57 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
Archer's stories (and novels) had never been popular for the big twists - there are some small ones but as a whole, it's the narrative and the story that matters, not the twists and the surprises. But even in this style, the twists pay off. Some of the stories are really entertaining, some are almost absurd ("Don't Drink The Water"), some seem to be exposing some strange things happening in Her Majesty's prisons ("The Alibi") (and when one of those stories is there, there is a short note at the end about what is happening to the inmate in question).
And through the whole collection, there had been one main line - crime does not pay off (probably with the exception of "The Red King" which was probably the funniest story from the lot).
Definitely not as strong as some of his novels but a pretty solid collection - 4 stars out of 5 for it. (