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A Matter of Honor [Kindle Edition]

Jeffrey Archer
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (115 customer reviews)

Print List Price: $8.99
Kindle Price: $6.99 includes free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
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Sold by: Macmillan

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Book Description

It seems innocent enough. A disgraced British colonel bequeaths a mysterious letter to his only son. But the moment Adam Scott opens the yellowing envelope, he sets into motion a deadly chain of events that threatens to shake the very foundations of the free world.

Within days, Adam's lover is brutally murdered and he's running for his life through the great cities of Europe, pursued not only by the KGB, but by the CIA and his own countrymen as well. Their common intent is to kill him before the truth comes out. While powerful men in smoke-filled rooms plot ever more ingenious means of destroying him, Adam finds himself betrayed and abandoned even by those he holds most dear.

When at last he comes to understand what he is in possession of, he's even more determined to protect it, for it's more than a matter of life and death-it's a matter of honor.
BONUS MATERIAL INCLUDED:  1st chapter of Jeffrey Archer’s newest novel SINS OF THE FATHER, coming May 2012.

SINS OF THE FATHER: On the heels of the international bestseller Only Time Will Tell, Jeffrey Archer picks up the sweeping story of the Clifton Chronicles….

Only days before Britain declares war on Germany, Harry Clifton, hoping to escape the consequences of long-buried family secrets, and forced to accept that his desire to marry Emma Barrington will never be fulfilled, has joined the Merchant Navy. But his ship is sunk in the Atlantic by a German U-boat, drowning almost the entire crew. An American cruise liner, the SS Kansas Star, rescues a handful of sailors, among them Harry and the third officer, an American named Tom Bradshaw. When Bradshaw dies in the night, Harry seizes on the chance to escape his tangled past and assumes his identity.

On landing in America, however, Bradshaw quickly learns the mistake he has made, when he discovers what is awaiting him in New York. Without any way of proving his true identity, Harry Clifton is now chained to a past that could be far worse than the one he had hoped to escape.



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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In 1966, Adam Scott, an unemployed British ex-army officer with an uncertain future, attends the reading of his disgraced father's will. Part of his inheritance is a letter detailing the events of Hermann Goering's suicide and two unopened letters from the Nazi general giving him access to a Swiss bank vault and the valuable Russian icon it contains. However, a veritable state secret is concealed in the painting and the KGB and the CIA both want it before the expiry of a crucial deadline. Scott's perilous journey across Europe to the questionable safety of England is by plane, car, foot, bus, ambulance, van, and ferry as he stays one step ahead of death with the assistance of farmers, salesmen, racing cyclists, hoodlums, and an entire orchestra. An epic chase thriller tidily concluded with a series of neat twists. Highly recommended. Literary Guild main selection. John North, L.R.C., Ryerson Polytechnical Inst., Toronto
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Sizzles along at a pace that would peel the paint off a spaceship." -The New York Times Book Review

"Jeffrey Archer has written the equivalent of an Alfred Hitchcock movie." -Baltimore Sun

"A wild, no-hold-barred slam-bang, pell-mell international thriller." -Buffalo News

More Praise for Jeffrey Archer:
"A master at mixing power, politics, and profit into fiction" -Entertainment Weekly

"Archer is a master entertainer." -Time Magazine

"One of the top ten storytellers in the world" -Los Angeles Times

"Archer plots with skill, and keeps you turning the pages." -Boston Globe

"Cunning plots, silken style...Archer plays a cat-and-mouse game with the reader." -The New York Times

"A storyteller in the class of Alexander Dumas...Unsurpassed skill...making the reader wonder intensely what will happen next." -Washington Post

Product Details

  • File Size: 564 KB
  • Print Length: 372 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0061007137
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (December 28, 2004)
  • Sold by: Macmillan
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B002L4QP0M
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Enabled
  • Lending: Not Enabled
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,708 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • Would you like to give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

A good story, very well written. Harold Zimmerman  |  23 reviewers made a similar statement
I found this book hard to put down once I started it. William E Hiller  |  10 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
117 of 123 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A can't stop page turner with mounting suspense September 6, 1999
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is the first Jeffrey Archer book that I have read. I can assure you that it won't be the last. I thoroughly enjoyed this adventure-suspense nov el. From the time that Adam Scott opens a letter which was given to him as part of a bequest from his deceased father's will, he is placed on a perilous path between life and death with many unpredictable twists and turns along the way. His search for the Russian icon of St. George and the Dragon coincides with similar searches by the Russian KGB and the Americans. How he manages to locate the icon and to eventually outwit his adversaries makes for an exciting story. I found this book hard to put down once I started it.
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44 of 45 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Spy novel reprises US fears of Russian domination June 28, 2002
Format:Mass Market Paperback
When his father dies, Capt. Adam Scott inherits an envelope. According to the terms of his father's will, he may choose not to open it but "should he decide to open the envelope, it must be on the condition that he will never divulge its contents to any other living person." Adam realizes that the envelope must contain the secret that led his WWII hero father into public disgrace and dishonor.

He opens the envelope and begins to unravel its secrets. Suddenly he's being pursued by the KGB. The defense strategy of the USA is in danger of becoming a pawn to Russia's plan to take over. An imaginative story, building suspense, surprising plot twists and lively writing make this a page-turner. If you like John Le Carre and Robert Ludlum's books, you should love this one.

Sunnye Tiedemann (aka Ruth F. Tiedemann)

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69 of 74 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Greatest June 16, 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have read extensively out of Jeffrey Archers repetoire and have found all of the books not only palatiable, but also intriguing reads.

I read this book 5 years ago, and make it a point to read it at least once a year if not more. This book was one of the best fiction books ever written as far as I am concerned.

It is so easy for the fiction author to fall into a trap and write the same old news, sometimes in a tired, but different way. These books are not interesting. Any author who can offer a breath of fresh air to the genre recieves my hats off, and this is due to jeffrey Archer.

This book isn't typical at all, the plot twists are entirely tough to predict,and even though the ending should have been a forgone conclustion (the hero winning) it was done in such a way that I was still very much interested.

The basis of the story is a guy named Adam who is led through many adventures because of an archaic note he got from his fathers will. This letter to his father was written in german, and in trying to get it translated the adventure begins.

His journey and escapes follow across most of Europe, and the action never stops. Somewhat like a James Bond flick, but 100 times better, and in book form is what I would compare this exciting read to.

Read this book, and when you are done, read all the rest of Archers books, you will enjoy each and every one of them.

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Typically good Archer thriller May 23, 2010
By H. Jin
Format:Mass Market Paperback
There are basically two distinct types of Jeffrey Archer books:

a) Epic character-driven tales of lifelong ambition and struggle ('Kane And Abel', 'Prodigal Daughter', 'First Among Equals', 'As The Crow Flies', 'The Fourth Estate', 'Sons of Fortune')

b) Relatively lean and fast-paced political thrillers ('Shall We Tell The President', 'Honour Among Thieves', 'Eleventh Commandment').

'A Matter Of Honour' falls into the second category, and is yet another entertaining Archer thriller. Young ex-soldier Adam Scott is left a mysterious envelope in his father's will, and the contents soon find him being persued all over Europe by agents of the Soviet Union and the United States, as well as his own Foreign Office. What is the significance of the object Adam's father was bequeathed, and how does it relate to the Soviets' sudden propaganda campaign in the West? There is also the question of the Scott family's "disgrace", and whether Adam can use the object to finally restore his late father's honour.

This is a good book, and fans of Archer's work will find plenty to love here. The characterisation is fairly standard Archer, which means it could be seen as a little cliche'd at times. Certainly Adam is very much an "Archer hero" who can endure all manner of phyiscal and intellectual challenges while still charming the pants off any girl he meets, and Romanov is the ruthless villan who'd kill his own close friends and lovers in cold blood to get what he wants. However, there are some surprisingly well-drawn side characters, in particular the increasingly enigmatic Lawrence as the friend who may or may not have sold Adam out, and the headstrong tomboyish Robin, whose fluent lying gets Adam out of several tight spots.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read January 1, 2007
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Although the details of Mr. Archer's personal life rival the plots of his novels - from near bankruptcy, to Britain's political inner circles, to prison cell - none of it gets in the way of his well-deserved reputation as an outstanding storyteller.

Next to "Kane & Abel" and "As the Crow Flies" this book is among my three favorites from Archer and I highly recommend it.

Set in the summer of 1966 with Lyndon Johnson in the White House, Harold Wilson at #10 Downing, and Leonid Brezhnev in the Kremlin, "A Matter of Honor" pits a most resourceful but unlikely British protagonist, Adam Scott, against an equally resourceful Soviet antagonist, Alexander Romanov.

When Adam's father, a disgraced military officer, dies, he leaves to his only son the princely sum of 500 pounds and two letters. The first is a missive from Adam's father, explaining the events that led to his resignation from the military, the circumstances that led to his possession of the second letter, and an expression of confidence that his son would conduct himself honorably should he decide to open the second letter and pursue whatever secrets it might contain. When Scott's curiosity gets the best of him, he opens the second letter and finds that it is from a now-dead elite member of Hitler's Third Reich - a man that Scott's father had been assigned to guard during the Nuremberg trials.

As one might guess, it is this second letter that proves to be the crux of the story. It leads Scott to a bank vault, deep beneath the streets of Zurich, containing an obscure work of Russian art - an icon - smuggled out of the country during the downfall of Czar Nikolai II.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Typical archer novel
Fast moving and eminently readable. Characters are refreshing and life-like. Interesting moral undertow to the novel. Can recommend to other readers
Published 13 days ago by Len
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent thriller
Archer's A Matter of Honor is, I think, one of the best thrillers out there, and one of my most riveting reads. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Peter Jones
3.0 out of 5 stars Engaging but predictable
While I enjoyed reading it, I thought there weren't enough twists in the plot. The collateral damage was not relevant to the storyline.
Published 1 month ago by Sumit
4.0 out of 5 stars A good and exciting read
First I would like to say a few words about those (9 of you) who think this book is complete crap. Furthermore, one even made it clear that he disliked Archer in a big way... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Dr. C.K. Yeung
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book
Love all of Jeffrey Archers Books he keeps you captivated very well written never boring, seems I have pretty much read all of them.
Published 2 months ago by Jutta Tracy
5.0 out of 5 stars Matter of Honour
Loved this. It was a real page turner and didn't want to put it down. The plot kept you guessing all the way through. Lots of little twists which is typical of JA.
Published 2 months ago by Chris Naden
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, wonderful
If you haven't read an Archer book now is the time to start. Creative, suspensive, page turner. I wanted to keep reading, but didn't want the story to end.
Published 3 months ago by Skinny Skinny
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting to me
Nice read!! For collectors and those with military experience or background, its good. Plenty of action for those who crave a bit of excitement>
Published 3 months ago by Kathleen Hamilton
4.0 out of 5 stars Page turner!
Very well written. Liked all the plot twists, character development and scene descriptions. I could see, very well, the words turning into pictures.
Published 4 months ago by VictoriaonBassLake
3.0 out of 5 stars Archer - always a good read
Archer always writes a good story. This must be one of his earlier books. I enjoyed it but found the ending ran out of steam.
Published 4 months ago by AllanH
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More About the Author

JEFFREY ARCHER has topped the bestseller lists around the world, with sales of over 250 million copies in 97 countries and more than 37 languages, of his sixteen novels (including Kane & Abel - now on its 93rd reprint, A Prisoner of Birth and Paths of Glory), six collections of short stories, three plays, three volumes of his prison diaries, and a Gospel. He is the only author ever to have been a number one bestseller in fiction (fifteen times), short stories (four times) and non-fiction (The Prison Diaries). His latest project is a five-book series called The Clifton Chronicles - books one, Only Time Will Tell, and two, The Sins of the Father, have both been international bestsellers and book three, Best Kept Secret, will be available in March 2013. Archer is married to Dame Mary Archer DBE, they have two sons, and divide their time between London and Cambridge.

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