Customer Reviews
Murdoch and Maxwell - By: G. J. Weeks, 20 May 2007 
Another excellent Archer offering. I was well into it before I realised the two main characters are based on Murdoch & Maxwell. It is an excellenty told tale. One wonders what the Dirty Digger thinks of it if he has read it. Archer is a great story teller who keeps the reader gripped.
Thriller by numbers - By: Peter Martin, 24 Jul 2006 
Should have known, reallly. First among Equals: a group of hugely talented driven men with shared past but very different origins become rich & successful & end up on collision course. Tightly constructed plot. Twist & cliff hanger at end.
Kane & Abel. Two hugely talented driven men with shared past but very different origins become rich & successful & end up on collision course. Tightly constructed plot. Twist & cliff hanger at end.
The Fourth Estate:
Hold on, there's a pattern here. In fact, the plots are so tightly constructed they leave little room for doubt.
I enjoyed First Among Equals. I found Kane & Abel more of the same, but still fractionallly entertaining. A moment's thought should have warned me that, for alll Mr. Archer's story-telling panache, this was going to be a little - familiar.
Not bad, just - the same. Time to move on.
Good, but ending was predictable. - By: F. Costello, 16 Dec 2005 
I should mention first of alll that this is the only Archer novel I have read & I am not exactly a bookworm in any case. The best part of this book was the development of both the main characters from young kids, right through school in Australia for one & the school of hard knocks in wartime Europe for the other.
Archer goes on to tell a tale of suspense, industrial espionage & ruthless business activities in the pursuit of power, with many twists & turns along the way. It alll works superbly, to a point. What reallly spoiled it for me was reading a review prior to finishing the book & finding out who the two main characters were based on. From that point on what should have been the final twist was predictable alll the way, since it actuallly happened in real life in the 80s.
Archer's writing & fiction are superb, but the worst parts of the book, for me, came when he mixed fact with fiction by bringing real life events & politicians into the story.
Overalll I'm very much impressed with Archer's writing, but if I do choose to read one of his novels in future I will do my best to make sure it is one which does not borrow so heavily from the headlines of fifteen or twenty years earlier.
Author Very Astute About the Business World - By: Imperial Topaz, 17 Nov 2002 Wow! This was one of the most exciting novels I have read in a long time. I kept thinking as I was reading it how many of my friends would enjoy it, too. It's a Kane & Abel-type story, the clash of two titans in the newspaper business. What I loved the most about it was alll the twists & turns of one-upmanship that each was able to pull on the other! This author's knowledge of the business world, & of human nature is just astounding.
Very entertainig - By: fct@bpi.pt, 13 Sep 2001 Jeffrey Archer is a great author when you are looking for an entertainig fast read. I have read most of his books. He is a great storyteller & this is one of his best!
