Mightier than the sword- Jeffery Archer September 2017 This book was the fourth in a set of 6, which although slightly off putting at first did in fact stand alone as a novel with enough detail about characters and earlier events to enable readers to make sense of the story.
This was about a wealthy family of shipowners whose cruise liner narrowly escaped being sunk by IRA bombers on its maiden voyage. Events subsequently centred around the directors' attempts to stop the story getting out to protect the company's reputation. In turn this provided fertile ground for blackmail and extortion on the part of the 'baddies' on the board of directors.
In a side story the son of the female chair of the board, a mercenary young man loses his fiancée after failing to honour a promise to an elderly historian schoolteacher who provides him with essential information. His mother at the same time is being sued for libel by the ex-wife of her husband.
At the conclusion of the story neither of these side plots is resolved leaving the readers feeling that the series might be part of a cynical effort on the part of the author to sell the next book or even better the serialisation rights.
The five members of the reading group who were present agreed that the book was lightweight and the plot and characters somewhat contrived. Nevertheless the author succeeded in 'reeling us in' to the extent that we cared what happened to the more sympathetic characters and felt antipathy towards the cheats and scoundrels. Overall it was an undemanding read and not a book that anyone felt they would recommend to others; although one or two had read earlier volumes in the series and felt they were better.
Scores : average 6 ( range 5 to 7 )
