Jeffery Archer – Twelve Red-Herrings - Review

 

This collection of 12 short tales are all different, exciting, and entertaining. Archer is renowned for his many novels, almost all of which have reached number 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. Though these stories can practically be viewed as miniature novels as the settings, characters and content are in-depth enough to seduce the reader, ensuring a pleasurable reading experience. For this reader, this is undoubtedly true, as the time spent engrossed in these stories took less than a day.

One of the more paced tales in the twelve with an unexpected twist would have to be “Never Stop on the Motorway.” An accomplished businesswoman, divorced with two children, leaves work late on a Friday evening. Her young children are with her ex-husband, as it is his weekend to see them, so she is free to visit friends for the weekend who live on a farm outside London. Darkness descends, the motorway is flooded with traffic, as it's peak hour and a Friday night. The traffic begins to thin out the farther out of the city she travels. From the side of the motorway, an animal darts in front of her vehicle, she hears a “bump” and pulls over to find nothing, and she is quite relieved. Once back on the road, a four-wheel-drive vehicle races up behind her, tail-gating and beeping their horn. She refuses to turn over to the side of the freeway because there has been news of a psychopath murdering several victims, known as the “motorways killer.” She doesn’t panic but begins a cat and mouse game in an attempt to lose this unrelenting auto-stalker, who simply does not stop, following her up to dangerously high speeds. What happens to the woman and the stalker behind in high-speed pursuit?

Admittedly, all twelve of these tales are excellent; however, the last one, “One Man’s Meat…” has to be the cleverest of the collection. It is because Archer gives the reader four alternative endings to the story. He writes:

“At this point in the story, the reader is offered the choice of four different endings.

You might decide to read all four of them or simply select one and consider your own particular ending. If you choose to read all four, they should be taken in the order in which they have been written.”

This reviewer decided to read all four alternative endings in the order that they were written. The third ending, titled “Overdone,” appealed to the “realist-cynical” side of my nature, although without question, the fourth and last ending, titled “A’ Point,” would have to be my hands-down favorite.

One British critic compared Jeffery Archer to the English novelist and short story writer Somerset Maugham. I have read most Maugham’s novels and short stories, and nothing could be further from the truth. These writers’ are different in style, sensibility, and content. There is no comparison other than both are masters’ at the written word. This critic, I believe, has never read Somerset Maugham; otherwise, he wouldn’t have made the comparison.

Archer is a great storyteller, and Twelve Red Herrings more than proves it.