6 reviews for The Eleventh Commandment
You must be logged in to post a review.
The Eleventh Commandment
by Jeffery Archer
Description:
The Eleventh Commandment. Connor Fitzgerald is a professional’s professional. Holder of the Medal of Honor. Devoted family man. Servant of his country. CIA assassin. Days before his retirement from the Company, Fitzgerald comes face to face with an enemy who, for the first time, even he cannot handle his own boss, Helen Dexter, Director of the CIA. Thou Shalt Not Be Caught.But Dexter’s stranglehold on the agency is threatened by a power greater than her own, and her only hope is to destroy Fitzgerald. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a new threat to national security is emerging: a ruthless hardline Russian president who is determined to force a military confrontation between the two superpowers. It’s up to the intrepid Fitzgerald to pull off his most daring mission yet save the world.and his own life.
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”
Naman
Although my exams were a couple of days ahead, I couldn’t stop reading this engaging book. Talking about engagement, I must have been found day and night sticking to The Eleventh Commandment much to the annoyance of my family members and peers. Other than that, what a read! Out of habit, I’d read exactly the last line of the story, WHICH I WON’T REPEAT, STRICTLY SPEAKING as I regretted it. Though it kept me anticipating a happy ending, I would have definitely been shocked at the moments, I was expected to be so had I not read the last line. What a book! I’ve hardly any words to describe how involved I was in Conner’s life, how much sorrow and horror I carried in my heart throughout the read at the dark human mentality and respect and appreciation at the goodness of it. This was my first Jeffrey Archer book and now I believe he’s earned his love of fans.Accurately, it has been described as “a rollercoaster of a book” and that Archer “scoops his readers up in the first paragraph, and doesn’t let them go until the last. The pace, the ingenuity, the twists, intertwined with a moving love story, show Britain’s bestselling author at the peak of his page-turning powers.”
Anmol
In one word – wow! Have I missed this? How can this not have been made into a movie? Is it politically incorrect? Anyway, the whole book follows Connor Fitzgerald, a man I liken to James Bond in the loosest sense. Not a womaniser, a man we all aspire to have as a friend or soul mate. Yet, deadly as sin… Since he is an American agent. The story starts with an assassination and it takes one twist after another, whilst making you both like the characters and want to read on. I don’t want to give a spoiler, since you should read this, but I cried at the end… And then, even though I guessed what was coming next (I always seem to…), it was great to end it like that! So, 5/5 for me! If you have not tried JA before – do. I only recently started reading his books, and I will never look back. Have a nice day, Vanessa 🙂
arif
An amazing book,every part of it was great,this book was so unpredictable that you could never tell what was going to happened in the next 10 pages,the writer didn’t disappoint.I think these sort of CIA focused books are great but as it is supposed to reflect the real world the ending was disappointing but still brilliant,i think i will read more of Archer’s books in the future
Vishvesh
Having read almost every novel written by the master storyteller, this was one of the few I’ve missed out on. Delivered within 24 hours of ordering, but the paper quality was slightly inferior to what I expected. The book itself is a thriller, though it does meander a bit in the middle while leading to the climax. Perhaps not the best book to start with for anyone who’s not read an Archer novel, but for those who have read a few others, this would be an enjoyable, relatively brisk read.
Kaushal
I love Jeffrey Archer books and over the time I even got used to his style when within a few pages he tends to move by a decade or two – both an action and his characters – and you find yourself dealing with a few generations, not just one person 🙂 Therefore, “The Eleventh Commandment” came as a surprise, since the author gave only one character in his book the right to entertain its readers until the last page and I truly enjoyed the fast paste action and never boring adventure across the world. I love reading political thrillers and Jeffrey Archer did a great job at keeping me “glued” to the book 🙂 I think the ending was a bit predictable, but still I would definitely recommend it to other readers.