A Quiver Full of Arrows

The short stories in this collection are all well-written - they each tell an interesting story with just the right amount of detail and no loose ends. The other fun thing about this collection is that each story has an unexpected or unlooked for ending. Probably my favorite stories would be "The Coup" and "Old Love" - though I didn't like the ending to that one much. I also enjoyed "The Perfect Gentleman".

A dozen tales that are all lightly entertaining but none have the cleverness that is the hallmark of a good short story. The twists were either too obvious or too trite to be satisfying.

Stories in this collection

The Chinese Statue
The Luncheon
The Coup
The First Miracle
The Perfect Gentleman
One-Night Stand
The Century
Broken Routine
Henry's Hiccup
A Matter of Principle
The Hungarian Professor
Old Love

Followers of my blog will have noticed a penchant for Jeffrey Archer short stories just recently.
That is simply because they are so good. Sometimes mystery, sometimes just simply quirky, all with marvellously drawn characters.

In this collection Archer says that 11 of the stories are based on known incidents and only one is totally the result of his own imagination. Each of them is 20-30 pages long. Just right for a bit of night time distraction.

My calculation now is that I have read at least 60 short stories by Archer show more and he really is the master. show less

AN EXCITING DOUBLE-BILL FROM ARCHER: AN ESPIONAGE MISSION INVOLVING A STOLEN RUSSIAN ICON, AND A CLEVER REVENGE PLOT AGAINST A CONMAN.

The short stories in this collection are included in the large "Collected Short Stories" edition. I thought the stories were mixed in quality. Here is the full list from the larger collection, along with by ratings (0 to 5 stars).

2.5* Never Stop on the Motorway
1* Old Love
1* Shoeshine Boy
2.5* Cheap at Half the Price
4* Broken Routine
3.5* An Eye for an Eye
2* The Luncheon
1* The Coup
3.5* The Perfect Murder
x You’ll Never Live to Regret It
x The First Miracle
1* The Loophole
2* The Hungarian Professor
2* The Steal
1* Christina Rosenthal
2* Colonel Bullfrog
2* Do Not Pass Go
1* Chunnel Vision
1* Dougie Mortimer’s Right Arm
1* Clean Sweep Ignatius
1/2* Not for Sale
3* One-Night Stand
3* A Chapter of Accidents
3* Checkmate
1* The Century
2* Just Good show more Friends
2* Henry’s Hiccup
2* A Matter of Principle
3* Trial and Error
3* The Perfect Gentleman
2* À la Carte
2* The Chinese Statue
2.5* The Wine Taster
2* Timeo Danaos…
1* Not the Real Thing
1* One Man’s Meat show less

review to follow

A Quiver Full of Arrows by Jeffrey Archer (2005)