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| A Prisoner of Birth | 
 enlarge | Author: Jeffrey Archer
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy Used: $1.20
You Save: $26.75 (96%)
New (64) Used (92) Collectible (2) from $1.20
Avg. Customer Rating:  64 reviews
Sales Rank: 24325
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Large Print Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.8
ISBN: 0312379293
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780739492246
ASIN: 0312379293
Publication Date: March 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
International bestseller and master storyteller Jeffrey Archer is at the very top of his game in a story of fate and fortune, redemption and revenge.
If Danny Cartwright had proposed to Beth Wilson the day before, or the day after, he would not have been arrested and charged with the murder of his best friend. But when the four prosecution witnesses are a barrister, a popular actor, an aristocrat, and the youngest partner in an established firm’s history, who is going to believe your side of the story?
Danny is sentenced to twenty-two years and sent to Belmarsh prison, the highest-security jail in the land, from where no inmate has ever escaped.
However, Spencer Craig, Lawrence Davenport, Gerald Payne, and Toby Mortimer all underestimate Danny’s determination to seek revenge, and Beth’s relentless quest to pursue justice, which ends up with all four fighting for their lives,
Thus begins Jeffrey Archer’s most powerful novel since Kane and Abel, with a cast of characters that will remain with you long after you’ve turned the last page.
And if that is not enough, prepare for an ending that will shock even the most ardent of Archer’s fans.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 59 more reviews...
 Something Old, Something New March 5, 2008
52 out of 55 found this review helpful
Wow! I read THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO as a teen, and it's always been a favorite of mine, so I was delighted to learn that Jeffrey Archer's new novel was a modern version of that well-loved tale. But A PRISONER OF BIRTH is a good deal more than a new spin on Alexandre Dumas--it's a fascinating, edge-of-your-seat thriller that actually makes a few valid points about the world today. From courtroom to prison to freedom with a glamorous new identity and a burning desire for revenge, the young hero of Archer's book is a worthy contemporary counterpart of Edmond Dantes, the "Count" of Monte Cristo. But you don't have to be familiar with the Dumas original to enjoy this terrific story. It's a good, old-fashioned page-turner that succeeds on its own merits. Highly recommended.
 "Revenge is a dish best served cold." March 9, 2008
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
Jeffrey Archer's " A Prisoner of Birth" opens on a cheerful note. An East-Ender named Danny Cartwright gets down on one knee and proposes to his pregnant girlfriend, Beth Wilson, who happily accepts. Bernie, Beth's brother and Danny's best mate, joins the happy couple at a pub to celebrate. The revelry ends abruptly when four drunken men pick a fight with Bernie and Danny, who depart with Beth to avoid a row. Unfortunately, the three are confronted by their antagonists and a vicious brawl ensues, leaving Bernie dead and Danny arrested for his murder. Although Danny's conscientious young attorney, Alex Redmayne, does his best to defend his client (who refuses to plead guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter), the four men from the pub, who call themselves the Musketeers, concoct a bogus but credible story and stick with it.
The actual killer is Spencer Craig who, ironically, is a barrister specializing in criminal law. Craig is a sociopath who has convinced his three friends, Gerald Payne, an estate agent, Lawrence Davenport, a television, actor, and Toby Mortimer, a drug addict, whom he has known since their days at Cambridge, to lie on his behalf. The wealthy and privileged Craig has contempt for the uneducated Cartwright and is elated when the jury finds Danny guilty. The sentence: twenty-two years in Belmarsh high-security prison.
"A Prisoner of Birth" is purposely reminiscent of Dumas' classic "The Count of Monte Cristo," with Danny playing the role of Edmond Dantes, who was also the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice. While in prison, Danny undergoes a major transformation. His cellmate, Nick Moncrieff, is an sophisticated and cultured individual; under his tutelage, Danny loses his accent and begins to speak and behave like a gentleman. He also takes courses and proves to be an intelligent and gifted pupil, especially in mathematics and business. Although his future seems bleak, a series of unforeseen events provide Danny with the opportunity to clear his name while taking revenge on the people who wronged him.
Archer has written an engrossing tale that is blessedly free of the sensationalism, gore, and explicit language that is common in today's fiction. Archer's style brings to mind the novels of yesteryear, with a beginning, middle, and end, and no distracting flashbacks. On the downside, Archer offers no shading in his characterizations; the villains are contemptible and the heroes are loyal and steadfast. Since most people are somewhat familiar with the Dumas story, there are few surprises in store. Still, once the reader becomes invested in Danny's fate, he will be interested to see how the young man's problems are eventually resolved. There is something here for everyone: scenes of intense courtroom drama, a touching romance, high-stakes financial intrigue, and a few delectable twists and turns in the final chapters. Although "A Prisoner of Birth" is not subtle, edgy, realistic, or brilliantly written, it is a good old-fashioned yarn, and that alone will earn it an eager audience.
Oh what a tangled web we weave... April 12, 2008
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
Two social groups come together in a pub. Danny Cartwright is out celebrating his engagement to Beth. Four nobs are out celebrating one of their birthdays. When one of the nobs insults Beth, the matter gets taken outside into the alley. Beth's brother is killed and the nobs frame Danny for the murder. Not everyone believes that he is guilty. Some reviewers have compared this to the Count of Monte Cristo (a wrongfully convicted man seeking revenge). In the plot, Danny is reading that novel in the prison library.
One gets a good look at the British legal system, as well as the class system. Danny is a garage mechanic from London's East End who somehow got through school without learning to read and write (he is exceptionally smart, and has an amazing somewhat photographic memory). He is well liked, and has his allies.
Locked away in prison, he has nothing else to do with his time, and two years of concentrated study can bring about major changes. Call it a finishing school.
The villains do not have the solidarity they might desire (there are always weak reeds) and tend to get themselves in deeper over time. There is some very interesting legal maneuvering. There is also some information about Swiss banking.
It might be noted that the author spent two years in a prison (as well as time in the House of Commons and House of Lords). He had the unique opportunity to research material for the novel first hand. It might also be noted that he attended Oxford University and cast the villains in the novel as being from Cambridge University.
entertaining thriller borrowed from Dumas but a new twist March 14, 2008
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
The novel is engaging as I found Danny Cartwright more likable and accessible than Edmond Dantes from Dumas classic The Count of Monte Cristo. There are several devices to tie up the complex plot in A Prisoner of Birth (as a previous reviewer mentions) but then again in the Dumas classic there are several items that make the story go that strain credibility (that a prisoner can make medication, tools, and ink in his cell). A certain amount of this stuff is necessary to make the plot go. The fact that Cartwright can take a plea is pure modern times. Nice touch. The ending is riveting as Cartwright doen't completely blindside his enemies, and ruin them via his wealth and the power that brings [as Dantes does]. I loved Dumas' clasic and enjoyed this as well.
 decent writing, unbelievable plotline March 10, 2008
7 out of 13 found this review helpful
Most of Jeffrey Archer's work ranges from 3 to 4 stars--from middling to good, but not great, although he has some very fine short stories. Prisoner of Birth is more of a 2 1/2 star book--there are just too many plot elements which do not seem believable. Some of Archer's novels and books of short stories are on my shelves to be read again: I suspect that Prisoner of Birth will get donated to my local library. Archer can write well, to be sure, but the problem here is originality and coherence.
Danny Cartwright is arrested and convicted for murder: 4 wealthy friends have blamed Cartwright, a lower-class hardworking East Ender for the crime. This occurs at the start of the book, and it bodes badly for what follows: the fracas begins in a pub and finishes outside. The wealthy friends claim that Danny was arguing with his soon-to-be-murdered pal and that they were minding their own business. The bartender, the other patrons (this is prime time at a popular upscale pub!) and a taxi driver outside the pub who witnesses the killing either do not come forward or claim they saw nothing. In a seedy joint where the patrons are anti-police this might fly, but here it seems a very long stretch indeed. So Danny, who has no previous criminal record, winds up at Belmarsh, a maximum-security prison. He is put in a cell with Alex Moncrieff, a former officer, who commanded troops in Kosovo, and against his orders not to fire, one of his squad shot and killed an armed insurgent. For this Moncrieff gets 8 years in prison for murder? Hah? The same prison also houses a psychotic killer and later a man with no previous record found guilty of possession of drugs (personal use, not resale). This seemed to me a strange collection for a maximum-security prison: made slightly more credible when I found that Archer himself had spent time there on his perjury charge. Maximum security for perjury or simple possession? Ah, the inscrutable Brits! Another piece that didn't seem right was that Cartwright was also stabbed in the leg in the fracas: it appears that even though he was promptly arrested and kept in jail, nobody examined, treated, or even noticed this severe and bleeding wound. This injury plays an important role later in the book. These are just a few of the problems with the main plotline--too many coincidences, too many incongruities, too much that simply feels wrong and unlikely.
There are plenty of novels about someone who is wrongly imprisoned, who escapes, and seeks revenge. Archer picks up on Dumas, who in turn got his idea from another author. You find similar themes--lots of them--in movies, on TV (e.g. The Fugitive). Even O.J. Simpson (who was not convicted, other than in public opinion) keeps seeking the True Killer. What is needed is a reasonable degree of originality, of creativity, to make it worthwhile, and Prisoner of Birth has neither. Stephen Fry's fine novel Revenge (a.k.a. The Stars' Tennis Balls) is such an exception: it's as surrealistic as Kafka's The Trial at times, and you'll see revenge that is truly diabolical--Cartwright's revenge in Archer's book is kids' play by comparison. The rich man/poor man theme in Prisoner of Birth has been done by Archer before, and not just once. So try one of Archer's other books instead: almost all of them are better reading than this.
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