Customer Reviews

Cascades - 'a Twist in the Tale' (Collins Cascades)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a big fan of Jeffrey Archer. I love his long novels and deep characterizations. This book was a bit different for me. When I first purchased it, I didn't know it was a collection of short stories. After reading the first story, I left it sitting by my beside for several weeks, then picked it up and read the rest in two days. The only reason I set it aside was that it surprised me when the first story ended--that's when I discovered it was a book of short stories. (I enjoy Jeffrey Archer so much that I bought it quickly, just looking at his name on the cover, passing through an airport, not noticing this book was not a novel like all his others.)

Most of these stories can be read in 30 minutes, while the first story might take one hour. The book is very appropriately named, because the very end of each story has a bizarrre "twist" that you don't expect. The twist happens literally in the last sentence or two of each story, and the reader is completely surprised.

Compared to most novels, these stories move incredibly fast. In spite of that, characterization is revealed well, as the stories move. There is quite a variety in the stories presented--in one story, he even writes as a woman. I highly enjoyed this book. Anyone who enjoys either short stories, or loves Jeffrey Archer's novels will enjoy it, too. The only reason I have rated it four stars instead of five, is that I personally enjoy novels much more than short stories-short stories end far too quickly for me.

The modern shortstory, let's face it, is a dying artform. Yes, there are journals and literary magazines dedicated to publishing them but unless the words "Ellery Queen" or "Isaac Asimov" appear on the cover odds are you won't find them on your average magazine stand. It is even more deplorable in bookstores. It is rare to see a collection of shortstories from anyone to whom the phrase "best selling author" applies to. So I find it great that every once in a while Jeffrey Archer serves up a new set of clever yarns. He's published several but this one is the best. The tales are written well and are good entertainment on their own face but he goes the extra mile by pulling surprises in the end. And I do mean the end. Frequently in this set the line that opens your eyes is the final one. Running the gamut from the fairly amusing "The Steal" to the tragic "Christina Rosenthal" there is, if nothing else, something for everyone. Absolutely first rate.

It was the first book I had read from Jeffrey Archer, it would definitely not be my last. The stories were all hilariously written and I couldn't stop myself from reading on and on..

The 12 stories were all good but I specially liked the first (the Perfect Murther) and the last stories (Cristina Rosenthal, which made me cry).

Whilst Arhcer's latest collection of short stories 'To Cut a Long Story Short' disappointed fans worldwide, only managing to keep up the pace for half the book, this collection keeps the high standard up all the way. These stories are brilliantly written and they mostly have twists at the end but sometimes midway. I don't really want to get into the plots of any of these stories as otherwise because of the twist I would give it away for people who haven't read the collection yet and I hate it when people do that. Settings are in the kitchen, courtroom and other places and characters roam across the gender and species. Anyway you'll enjoy this collection, just don't waste your money on 'To Cut a Long Story Short' as only the first couple of stories are good in that collection.

A collection of fiction you can't possibly put down. The book is full of variety and suspense; the stories are unpredictable and original. There is not a second rate story in this collection.

So beautifully are these short stories written, you will not believe me unless you read them. Yes, every story has a "Twist" and you could never have guessed how it would be. I liked the story "We are just good friends" one of the best among them. And then there is the jury in one of the stories....Ok ,Ok I will not tell you more, so get your hands on the book.

These twelve stories each have an unexpected twist. Sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, always enjoyable.

This book is the first Jeffery Archer I have read, but it won't be the last.

After reading Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less and A Twist in the Tale, I'm ready to proclaim Jeffrey Archer King of the Twist. Every story in this collection turns on some unexpected event, point of view, or premise, and about the only thing you can count on is that you will be surprised.

While not great literature, A Twist in the Tale does provide some entertaining reading. Though the characters are largely forgettable, Archer's narrative voice provides you with just enough distance that you can enjoy what happens to them and how it happens (Not The Real Thing, Just Good Friends). Some of these stories are reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe (A Perfect Murder, Colonel Bullfrog).

In short, entertaining reading. The kind of book you might pick up at a ski lodge and be able to finish in one sitting.

Jeffrey Archer's 1988 collection of twelve short stories is not entitled *A Twist in the Tale* for nothing. The concluding paragraphs of each story--sometimes just the final sentence--inevitably offer the reader some kind of surprise, whether slight and easily swallowed ("A La Carte") or groan inducing ("Just Good Friends") or the product of a sort of dishonest storytelling that leaves one feeling ill treated ("The Perfect Murder"). Among the best of the lot are "A La Carte"--the story of a young man compelled by his father to delay entering his chosen profession--and "Honor among Thieves," in which a wine connoisseur is put to the test by a "humbug." But all of the stories (ten of them are reportedly based on actual events) are worth a read. Archer writes in a commendably straightforward style that is easily digested: it is not surprising that, as the jacket copy of the book informs us, Archer has been hailed as "the natural successor to Maugham."**

**See Somerset Maugham's autobiographical *The Summing Up* for his discussion of the three qualities for which he strove in his writing: lucidity, simplicity, and euphony.

Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece