Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36938 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-04
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Synopsis
The expected never happens ...a man calls unexpectedly on his mistress and sees another man leaving her flat. Accusing her of being unfaithful, he quarrels with her, strikes her. She dies. Leaving unseen, he tips off the police so that the other man is arrested and charged ...Has he achieved 'The Perfect Murder'? A tanstalising opening to "A Twist in the Tale". Consider also: a wine-tasting with a bizarre difference, a game of sex with a sexy stranger, a violent row in a golf clubhouse bar, a rivalry founded on eating cornflakes ...just some of the openings in this cunningly constructed, fast-moving, entertaining set of stories from the bestselling author of our time. 'Probably the greatest storyteller of our age' - "Mail on Sunday."

Customer Reviews

A true twist in the stories
A TWIST IN THE TALE is the most exciting of Archer's collection of short storiesbook. The stories simply grip you from the start and you wouldn't guess it right how they would end no matter how hard you try to. They get particularly interesting towards the end. The plots are all too unpredictable and the writing is fast-paced, smooth and rich.. It's simply vintage Archer and with other collections like USURPER AND OTHER STORIES, RUNAWAY, WARD NUMBER SIX AND OTHER RORIES,UNION MOUJIK, I am in the phase of my life where I am enjoying short fiction the most.

Entertaining
The collection of these simplistic short stories confirms that the author, Jeffrey Archer, caught the exact nerve of common men and their perenial passion for unadulterated entertainment. Jeffrey Archer has accurately depicted each one of these pieces to form a complete and seemingly moralistic episodes. Couple of stories are humourous in themselves while others are quite dramatic and touching. But the driving characteristic of each story is it's amazing climax. Once you realized that the stories have twist in the end, you start guessing the end afterwards and each time you fail. Its only the author who can think of such unbelievable, yet realistic, climax.
Highly recommended for those who don't want to be bothered by involvement of philosophical doses, complexity or mystery.

Short Stories with Unexpected Endings
I am a big fan of Jeffrey Archer. I love his long novels and deep characterizations. This book was a bit different for me. When I first purchased it, I didn't know it was a collection of short stories. After reading the first story, I left it sitting by my beside for several weeks, then picked it up and read the rest in two days. The only reason I set it aside was that it surprised me when the first story ended--that's when I discovered it was a book of short stories. (I enjoy Jeffrey Archer so much that I bought it quickly, just looking at his name on the cover, passing through an airport, not noticing this book was not a novel like all his others.)

Most of these stories can be read in 30 minutes, while the first story might take one hour. The book is very appropriately named, because the very end of each story has a bizarrre "twist" that you don't expect. The twist happens literally in the last sentence or two of each story, and the reader is completely surprised.

Compared to most novels, these stories move incredibly fast. In spite of that, characterization is revealed well, as the stories move. There is quite a variety in the stories presented--in one story, he even writes as a woman. I highly enjoyed this book. Anyone who enjoys either short stories, or loves Jeffrey Archer's novels will enjoy it, too. The only reason I have rated it four stars instead of five, is that I personally enjoy novels much more than short stories-short stories end far too quickly for me.