Jeff Archer’s latest offering would make one think that the concept has been lifted straight from a Bollywood flick (twins separated at birth). But, that’s where the similarity ends between “Sons of Fortune” and a hindi movie, where the twins separate(maybe in Kumbh mela!!!), grow up to be exactly similar (the girls have the same figure and the guys have even the same sized biceps!) and reunite among loads of tears(thanx to the family song!!!).
The book is about fraternal twins Nathaniel and Peter whose life is completely changed when a “spur-of-the-moment” decision ends up exchanging the crib of baby Peter with that of a dead baby and he grows up as Fletcher, the only son of multi-millionaire, Davenport. But, Nat goes home with his middle class parents, the Cartwrights. As the brothers grow up unaware of each other’s existence, Nat becomes a successful banker and Fletcher graduates to become a criminal lawyer and later, a flourishing politician. There are lots of similarities between them and even fall for the same woman briefly. They do not know the truth of their relationship, even when one has to defend another for murder. The final confrontation takes place when Nat and Fletcher, both contest against each other for the post of the governer.
It is good to see that the author has left his usual kind of stories, which deals with the enmity of people and how ultimately one of them succeeds. It just explains the life of two remarkable men who are bonded by blood, but separated by fate and reunited by destiny and it’s extraordinary consequences. Archer has convincingly explained that “It is often spur-of-the-moment decision, sometimes made by others, that can change our whole lives”. The master story-teller has once again proved that no one can match his caliber with his most recent novel. The story doesn’t have anything that seems illogical or cinematic about it. The book has touches of “Archer” in it as it concentrates on the life of two people who influence each other a lot professionally. Just as any other Archer stories, the book once started cannot be put down.
Jeffery Archer has the tradition of bettering every one of his own novels. He has definitely proved this in “Sons of Fortune”. “Sons…” surely will add on to the list of Archer’s popular books (which includes all the novels he has written!) and is a must-read for anyone who loves fiction.