Sons of Fortune
WRITTEN BY Jeffrey Archer

Published 2003
597 pages (NZ Paperback)

Bad Points: Repetitive, laboured parallels, full of clichés, borrows heavily from previous Archer novels, too damn long.

Good Points: Repeats lots of plot devices from previous Archer novels, so if you liked them there, you might like them here as well. I doubt it.

Sons of Fortune is the latest in a long line of bestseller fiction from the now infamous British novelist Jeffrey Archer. They are safe, weighty tomes, designed for someone who likes to read authors that have earned their reputation long since. Sadly this reliability also means Sons of Fortune is clichéd, dull and over long. The story is predictable and ridden with clichés (repetition reinforces the learning example), some of Archer’s own making in novels past, others the reliable crutches of a lazy author. Put simply I believe Archer has lost his touch, while he can no doubt write a five hundred page novel easily he can no longer do it well.

As is a common theme with Archer’s books the plot revolves around the political world, in this case East Coast American state and federal elections. Two boys are born to a humble, middle class family while in the same hospital; on the same night a rich mother’s newborn son dies not long after birth. The devoted midwife of the rich family secretly swaps the dead child for one of the twin sons, and both couples leave the hospital with what they believe to be their newborn sons. Goody, I wonder if they will meet later in life?

After this exciting start the two boys are raised close to each other, one rich, one middle class but ever so smart, they go to local schools, and each action by one is closely matched by the other. They find girls at the same time, sport, elections, academic achievement, the list goes on, and just in case we forget they are twins Archer laboriously points out the parallels often. Thanks Jeffrey, your readers are no doubt not as smart as you, and we thank you for your mile high plot signposts.

This boring series of parallels goes on for several hundred pages, occasionally we get a happy distraction, when one boy goes off to war, and the other defends murder clients while a second year law student. Sure there is no real explanation how he gets to defend this innocent woman, but that should not ruin a good story, or even this one. Nevertheless it is clear that the twins are genuinely nice guy heroes.

So as to be expected the twins get married, develop careers, and get interested in politics. It is after all, a political thriller. I can’t even remember this part of the book very well, even though I read it yesterday; so generic are the plot devices, and the frequent borrowings from previous Archer novels. However, just as the reader begins to lose interest Archer revisits his favourite political device: the close fought election, the endless vote recount, the outcome decided on a coin toss! Just like in his earlier work, First Among Equals (a readable book surprisingly). I’ve no doubt that this was meant to inject a note of excitement into the novel, but sadly it just falls flat.

I would dearly love to tell you more about this novel, expanding perhaps upon the shared nemesis, the murder/suicide, the former prostitute mother-in-law and the final electoral battle, but that probably will get me charged for attempted mind-rape. I’m too young and pretty to go to prison.

In the end this is a very forgettable novel, hell, I would even go as far as to say this is a bad piece of work, one that reflects badly upon the author, and political thrillers in general. Jeffrey Archer has thrown together a contrived plot, liberally dosed with frequent borrowings from his previous work. If you have not read his work before I’d beg you not to start now, but if you have I beg you not to read this. It is so bad that it actually spoils my enjoyment of novels that Archer wrote in his prime, like Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less. Novels that were actually good, that earned him his reputation.

3/10. The three points are for the effort of writing 597 pages. Not good pages. Don’t read this book.

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