6 reviews for Honour Among Thieves
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Honour Among Thieves
by Jeffery Archer
Description:
Who would pay a billion dollars to humiliate America? The time, 1993. The place, Washington DC. Of the adversaries in the Gulf War, the sole survivor is Saddam Hussein. And Saddam is planning a revenge so diabolical that the United States will be left with no choice but to retaliate . . . Honour Among Thieves has a wickedly paced political plot, full of all the twists and turns you can expect from bestselling author, Jeffrey Archer. ‘A fast-moving intrigue . . . a cracking good read. This is the first novel I have read by Jeffrey Archer; it will not be the last’ Mail on Sunday ‘Back in top form . . Archer’s imagination at its most sublime . . . an entertaining, pacey page-turner’ Sunday Times ‘Few are more famous than Archer for keeping the pages turning . . . an extravagant romp – possibly his best’ The Times
About The Author
Archer wrote his first book, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, in the autumn of 1974, as a means of avoiding bankruptcy. The book was picked up by the literary agent Deborah Owen and published first in the US, then eventually in Britain in the autumn of 1976. A BBC Television adaptation of the book was broadcast in 1990, and a radio adaptation was aired on BBC Radio 4 in the early 1980s.
Kane and Abel (1979) proved to be his best-selling work, reaching number one on The New York Times bestsellers list. Like most of his early work it was edited by Richard Cohen, the Olympic fencing gold-medallist. It was made into a television mini-series by CBS in 1985, starring Peter Strauss and Sam Neill. The following year, Granada TV screened a ten-part adaptation of another Archer bestseller, First Among Equals, which told the story of four men and their quest to become Prime Minister. In the U.S. edition of the novel, the character of Andrew Fraser was eliminated, reducing the number of protagonists to three.
As well as novels and short stories, Archer has also written three stage plays. The first, Beyond Reasonable Doubt, opened in 1987 and ran at the Queen’s Theatre in London’s West End for over a year. However, Archer’s next play, Exclusive, was not well received by critics, and closed after a few weeks. His final play, The Accused, opened at the Theatre Royal, Windsor on 26 September 2000, before transferring to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in the West End in December.
Archer has stated that he spends considerable time writing and re-writing each book. He goes abroad to write the first draft, working in blocks of two hours at a time, then writes anything up to seventeen drafts in total. In 1988 author Kathleen Burnett accused Archer of plagiarising a story she’d written and including it in his short-story collection, A Twist in the Tale. Archer denied he had plagiarised the story, claiming he’d simply been inspired by the idea.
It has been suggested that Archer’s books undergo an extensive editing process prior to publication. Whilst Archer’s books are commercially successful, critics have been generally unfavourable towards his writing. However, journalist Hugo Barnacle, writing for The Independent about The Fourth Estate (1996), thought the novel, while demonstrating that “the editors don’t seem to have done any work”, was “not wholly unsatisfactory”.
Since 2010, Archer has written the first draft of each new book at his luxury villa in Majorca, called “Writer’s Block”.
In 2011, Archer published the first of seven books in The Clifton Chronicles, which follow the life of Harry Clifton from his birth in 1920, through to the finale in 2020. The first novel in the series, Only Time Will Tell, tells the story of Harry from 1920 through to 1940, and was published in the UK on 12 May 2011. The sixth instalment, Cometh the Hour, was published on 25 February 2016. The final novel in the series, This Was a Man, was published on 3 November 2016.
Archer’s next novel has been provisionally titled Heads You Win, and will be published in 2017, along with another volume of short stories.
Skryf Review
“Good Reading”
Sejal
Who exactly was Saddam Hussein? That was the first question that popped up in my mind after completing this novel.This is what the Guardian has to write about this tyrannical ruler who controlled Iraq for over a period of 24 years with an iron fist. And it was all I needed to know about the guy whom I was beginning to hate halfway through the novel.A book of fiction tells much about the life and times of the people. I checked the year of the publication of this book – 1993, at that time most of the people in the world were quite apprehensive about this vulture who had perched himself rigidly over the bounteous oil-spurting nest called Iraq. Today, we are no longer concerned about this man who had given quite a few sleepless nights to Presidents and Prime Ministers of many powerful nations of the time. But it was an altogether different era. If the Second World War produced Guns of Navarone and countless other books concerning themselves with Germany, clicking their tongues in relish and feeding over each rumor emerging from that secretive country: tales of cyborg army, a new super powerful weapon and what not, if the cold war resulted in plethora of Anti-Russia intrigue, Honour Among Thieves is definitely one of those novels concerning itself with the times of Saddam.
This indeed is trademark Archer book. The author likes his central characters to be nothing short of genius, and here we are introduced to quite a motley bunch of super-smarts. The novel is a tightly orchestrated play of words with thorough trimming and sleek streamlining. Mr. Archer is indeed oath bound to deliver us fast paced thrillers. So if you are looking to vicariously lead a life filled with thrill and adventure, it would be better if you tag along with this very talented author.
Pooja
Honour Among Thieves (1993) is a novel by English author Jeffrey Archer. The book takes place in 1993 with Saddam Hussein planning to retaliate against the United States after the events of the Gulf War.When the United States defeats Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam Hussein plans to humiliate the victors by stealing the American Declaration of Independence and publicly burning it on 4 July in full view of world media. To achieve this, his Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations enlists the help of Antonio Cavalli, a lawyer and one of the leading figures of the New York mafia.
Navya
My first full-length Jeffrey Archer novel (other one was Quiver Full of Arrows , his short-story collection) and I am mightily impressed, I must say.This book falls in “my-type” category. All that crime, conspiracy and stuff falls in my most favorite genre and Honor Among Thieves was a treat to read.Jam-packed with action from the first page itself, it had an immensely engaging plot which made it hard for me to put the book down. Now I am sure that I’ll never have to blink twice to buy a Jeffrey Archer book when I see it.
Angaan
If I were to pick out one interesting observation that I have made of Jeffrey Archer over the years, it would be his undoubtably good sense in crafting entertainers. Archer never bothers with creating incredibly detailed characters or plot lines that challenge your intellect. He goes in for racy and swashbuckling thrill rides which begin and end with a lot of pomp & splendor.Yes, the good guys are too good to be true & the evil guys undoubtedly stink. Yes, your protagonist who is said to be untested in the field performs much better than a field commander under pressure and so forth. But it isn’t fair to this book if I were to dissect it & show you its innards in the light of logic for the simple reason that this was not what was expected of this book. A lot of things have changed in the world of now than it was in the world of this tale. Giants have fallen & far more sinister threats have since then raised their heads but it still was a pretty interesting tale. Good old Archer at his best !
Anupama
I had some difficulty getting into this one. Maybe it was the number of characters and difficult Arabic names I had to remember. Or maybe it was because I was busy writing and let it sit too long between readings.Either way, the plot had all the essential elements I like in a book, with a number of predictable twists. I’m torn between three and four stars.It was the first Jeffrey Archer novel I’ve read, and I did like the book, so I gave it four.