A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer (2008) is another of his great stories. In fact, the author considers this his best book.

A contemporary retelling of Dumas’s 1844 novel The Count of Monte Cristo.

Archer spent 2 years in Belmarsh Prison, featured in this book, for perjury and perverting the course of justice. He writes what he knows.

A pub fight results in a stabbing death.

Danny is wrongly blamed for the murder in a well-orchestrated plot by Spencer (a barrister) and his friends: a popular actor, a drug-addicted aristocrat, and a young estate agent.

Sentenced to 22 years in Belmarsh prison, Danny befriends 2 cellmates, Albert Crann, known as “Big Al,” and Sir Nicholas Moncrieff. 

How can Danny get out of prison? Clear his name? And bring justice to Spencer?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

For me, it’s the ending of the story that makes this a fantastic read.

The courtroom drama is a brilliant conclusion.

Sin City Treachery: An AJ Docker and Banshee Thriller is a light read — but engaging and entertaining.

“Doc” Docker is a medical professional. But the star of the show is his retired police dog, Banshee.

His sidekick Rick is another hilarious character.

Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world, hosts an F1 race, the largest sporting event in the city’s history and a prime target for terrorism.

With over a half million people descending on the strip for the event, a bomb detonates in a parking garage days before the race.

In the emergency room, Doc fights to save the lives of a pregnant doctor and her premature baby injured in the blast, spurring him to risk his own life to find justice for the victims.

He is joined by his girlfriend, Lana, a smart, ambitious reporter, his friend and colleague, Rick, and his trained ex police dog Banshee.

Their investigation takes them from a seedy bar to iconic landmarks around Las Vegas and crescendo on the night of the race when chaos reigns in the city.

Sin City Treachery

Excellent.

The Informant surprisingly finds Elizabeth Waring, now now high up in the Organized Crime Division of the Justice Department, visited by the professional killer (alias Michael Schaeffer) she’d been hunting for years.

 A Mafia hit team finally catches up with Schaeffer who had been in hiding. He knows they won’t stop coming and decides to take the fight to their door. 

He offers Waring information on the mafia, in order to get them off his back. So begins a new assault on organized crime and an uneasy alliance between opposite sides of the law. 

Good premise. But ultimately too complicated & confusing.

The 30th book in the excellent series is not one of the best. Some are calling it the worst.

Exit Strategy (2025) finds Reacher sitting in a Baltimore coffee shop. Spotting a conman taking advantage of two elderly customers, he quickly teaches a lesson. Returning the money.

THIS is the kind of story I want in these novels.

… Unfortunately it got worse.

On the way out of the coffee shop, a young man drops a note into Reacher’s pocket. That leads to a lengthy & often confusing, slow, and eventual confrontation with an  interesting villain. But the plot is too complex.

I assume the new books are mostly written by Andrew. And they are not as good.