SONS OF FORTUNE- Jeffrey Archer

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‘Sons of Fortune’ is another one of Jeffrey Archer's trademark style - story of the entire life of two people spanning many decades. Nevertheless, in the same trademark style, he once again manages to enthrall his readers.

The story revolves around Nat Cartwright and Fletcher Davenport, twins who were separated at birth under the most unusual circumstances. Unbeknown to each other's existence, both men take their separate paths. Nat belongs to a middle class family, serves in Vietnam, and then goes into banking. Fletcher, on the other hand, goes to a very wealthy family, studies at Yale and becomes a criminal defence lawyer. But as expected, their paths cross! They meet at various instances, throughout their lives. However, it is almost towards the end of the book when they realize they’re actually twins and mutually decide to keep it a secret.

Though the story is very similar to his previous novels, I don’t necessarily see that as a negative. The plot is as absorbing as the others, and the characters are pretty realistic and well developed too. Basically, I did not want to put the book down. Actually, even after the end, I wanted to know what happened to the characters later.

Being a typical Archer novel, it is long (over 500 pages), and has a lot of elements, suspense, drama, romance et al. However, it is not exactly fast paced, nor is it an action thriller. It goes at a relaxed pace, with the intention of the reader living with the protagonists rather than just reading about their lives. Though most of it is likeable and plausible, I did not like a few parts of the story, especially the death of one of the characters. It could have come under different circumstances or for a different reason. All in all, all the characters turn out to be likeable, or irritating, as the author intended. You feel for both the twins, as well as for their families.

On the whole, it makes for an excellent page-turner and is definitely worth reading.

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