Review
"Sizzles along at a pace that would peel the paint off a spaceship." -The New York Times Book Review
"Jeffrey Archer has written the equivalent of an Alfred Hitchcock movie." -Baltimore Sun
"A wild, no-hold-barred slam-bang, pell-mell international thriller." -Buffalo News
More Praise for Jeffrey Archer:
"A master at mixing power, politics, and profit into fiction" -Entertainment Weekly
"Archer is a master entertainer." -Time Magazine
"One of the top ten storytellers in the world" -Los Angeles Times
"Archer plots with skill, and keeps you turning the pages." -Boston Globe
"Cunning plots, silken style...Archer plays a cat-and-mouse game with the reader." -The New York Times
"A storyteller in the class of Alexander Dumas...Unsurpassed skill...making the reader wonder intensely what will happen next." -Washington Post
Book Description
It seems innocent enough. A disgraced British colonel bequeaths a mysterious letter to his only son. But the moment Adam Scott opens the yellowing envelope, he sets into motion a deadly chain of events that threatens to shake the very foundations of the free world.
Within days, Adam's lover is brutally murdered and he's running for his life through the great cities of Europe, pursued not only by the KGB, but by the CIA and his own countrymen as well. Their common intent is to kill him before the truth comes out. While powerful men in smoke-filled rooms plot ever more ingenious means of destroying him, Adam finds himself betrayed and abandoned even by those he holds most dear.
When at last he comes to understand what he is in possession of, he's even more determined to protect it, for it's more than a matter of life and death-it's a matter of honor.
About the Author
Jeffrey Archer was educated at Oxford University. He became the youngest member of the House of Commons in 1969, was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party in 1985, and was elevated to the House of Lords in 1992. All of his novels and short story collections - including Kane and Abel, Honor Among Thieves, and To Cut a Long Story Short - have been international bestsellers, selling over 120 million copies worldwide. Archer is married with two children and lives in England.
Matter of Honor FROM THE PUBLISHER
It seems innocent enough. A disgraced British colonel bequeaths a mysterious letter to his only son. But the moment Adam Scott opens the yellowing envelope, he sets into motion a deadly chain of events that threatens to shake the very foundations of the free world.
Within days, Adam's lover is brutally murdered and he's running for his life through the great cities of Europe, pursued not only by the KGB, but by the CIA and his own countrymen as well. Their common intent is to kill him before the truth comes out. While powerful men in smoke-filled rooms plot ever more ingenious means of destroying him, Adam finds himself betrayed and abandoned even by those he holds most dear.
When at last he comes to understand what he is in possession of, he's even more determined to protect it, for it's more than a matter of life and death - it's a matter of honor.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
In 1966, Adam Scott, an unemployed British ex-army officer with an uncertain future, attends the reading of his disgraced father's will. Part of his inheritance is a letter detailing the events of Hermann Goering's suicide and two unopened letters from the Nazi general giving him access to a Swiss bank vault and the valuable Russian icon it contains. However, a veritable state secret is concealed in the painting and the KGB and the CIA both want it before the expiry of a crucial deadline. Scott's perilous journey across Europe to the questionable safety of England is by plane, car, foot, bus, ambulance, van, and ferry as he stays one step ahead of death with the assistance of farmers, salesmen, racing cyclists, hoodlums, and an entire orchestra. An epic chase thriller tidily concluded with a series of neat twists. Highly recommended. Literary Guild main selection. John North, L.R.C., Ryerson Polytechnical Inst., Toronto