Wonder what is it about the title of the review? Want to know? That would mean disclosing the plot. The plot...always the plot. The one reason why Archer and Forsyth rule (d) the paperback kingdom...they choose their plots effectively. Read The Devil’s Alternative by Forsyth The plot takes you across continents, governments, seas, people, things, weathers... it tells you 4 stories and ties them all up in one thrilling climax. Read Honour among Thieves...Saddam’s clever plan to defeat the American pride using a con man and a small obscure document. Archer and Forsyth seem to battle each other over plots. For Matter Of Honour is another foray by Archer into Forsyth’s own yard. (Forsyth paid the homage to his contemporary in The Veteran where he lifted off a plot from Archer’s Not A Penny less.. for a short story).
Unlike Forsyth’s novels, MOH is not led by an MI5/6 or Special Services sleuth as its protagonist. But by a simple ordinary man who was bequeathed a measly sum of money and a fake painting by his father, a retired soldier, disgraced for an alleged link to Hernan Goering, post WW2. Out of job and living with a friend, he is trying to get into the Foreign Office, when a letter by his dead father reaches him and changes his life forever. The painting he left for his son was a gift from Goering for looking after him in his days of capture. It was supposed to be a fake. But elsewhere, Leonid Brezhnev, Chairman, CPSU (the story was set in the 1960’s) wants it badly. Why? Land grabbing! That is the suspense. Brezhnev sends a crack agent to retrieve it at any cost. Hero meanwhile lands in Switzerland to retrieve the painting from a Swiss bank locker. Russian agent intervenes and hero’s new found girlfriend dies. The rest is a chase across Europe as Britain, the United States and Soviet Russia jump into a political battle of wits. What’s with the painting? Why does Brezhnev want it? What hoary past does hero’s dad have in connection with the painting, Nazi Germany, the Czar of Russia and the Communists? Why is United States desperate about the date June 17, 1966 (I hope the date is correct!) and why are the Russians jubilant? Why is it a deadline for Romanov, the Russian agent to retrieve the painting? Will the hero redeem his father’s honour and get his sorry life going? Will England save him? Will there be a shift in the Balance of Power...whew!
Well those are the questions to answer by reading the novel.
Archer has done a good job about the novel, though Forsyth’s keen eye for detail is missing. The chase is good enough to keep you at the edge of the seat. Archer’s dependence on a character devoid of any special skills or identities associated with tough secret agents and spies is a plus here. You have a normal man, jobless, homeless, trying to beat the dreaded Spetsnaz of USSR. Too movie-like? Well the scenes are well contrived. At least, nothing sounds impossible, not even the hero’s escape from the Russian embassy in Paris after a hideous torture (he recollects all the works of Shakespeare aloud to ignore the pain...good place to check out how many did the bard really write). If Forsyth is gifted with abilities to do research, Archer is gifted with some keen imagination. This novel had its time, the world over but was completely shadowed by Archer’s other works and Forsyth’s epics. Otherwise it is a good story…that land-grabbing part was contrived too good. What land grabbing? Read the novel to find out.