A Matter of Honor - Jeffrey Archer

Archer’s “ A matter of Honor” could be said to be one his books where in the plot theme seemed extremely interesting but the way it is shaped up and concluded leaves a lot to be desired.  It could easily be said to be one of Archer’s well attempted narratives which has a mix of historical fiction and general fiction. The plot which spans from Russia to Germany to United Kingdom to the Swiss almost covers the entire of Europe within its narrative.

The Plot majorly revolves around two characters in pursuit of a historical document which is to be found through various clues, one a KGB agent and another ex British Army, and is utter most important to two powerful nations. The cat and mouse game and the hunt of the historical document will surely remind you of many classical novels which one must have come across during the sixties, seventies and early eighties.

Though the reader will surely enjoy the premise, but will run out of patience on the placing of the events and backgrounds of the characters. The antagonist “Alex Romanov” could be easily referred to as one of Archer’s weakest villains. The protagonist, “Adam Scott “too also doesn’t have much of a scope with respect to character traits. He simply has been given the routine chase and surprise emotions to come about.

There are a whole lot other characters within the narrative but hardly any of them come to the rescue of this average narrative which could take some time actually to digest. If we look at the book as some, one of novel, then surely one would enjoy some bits of it, but Archer as the story teller completely goes off road here. Perhaps the narrative was trying too many things in a too little a space. The connection which we generally associate with Archer’s characters completely seems out of reach here.

There are lot of tailing, lot of agents and lot of spies and of course lots of chase, some would even take us back to Forsyth’s “The day of the Jackal”, but somewhere down the line it clearly misses the target, been there done that !

Archer’s “A matter of Honor” is interesting at points and average at many but as a book it does entertain, only if, entertainment is the motto of the reader!