This is a collection of short stories from Jeffrey Archer, following on the footsteps of A twist in the tale and A quiver full of arrows. Considering the class that he bestowed on the earlier collections of short stories, this one falls flat on its face! It is not that all the stories are bad-some of them are exceptionally good-but the twists in the tail are contrived in many cases, and absurdly obvious in some others.
Archer’s tendency to ramble on and use ten words when one would have sufficed have lent this collection an aura of a soap opera, where you wonder whether the title should really have been To stretch a short story long. The best story in the entire collection is not penned by Archer. In the author’s own words, he has just translated Death Speaks, a wonderful fable from Baghdad!
One of the best stories in the collection is the End Game which pulls you along by the force of its narrative, but fails to deliver a satisfying climax. It epitomizes all that is wrong with this collection. My personal favourite is Crime Pays where an enterprising and educated thief shows what can be achieved if you really learn the laws of the land, and the loopholes therein! A glimpse of Archer at his best, and a taste of what could have been!!
My personal recommendation is to get this collection from a library or a friend and read it. You will definitely enjoy some of the stories, but you would be really cursing yourself if you shelled out good dough to buy this one.