This is the first Jeffrey Archer novel I've read, though I've long been a huge fan of his short stories. I was a bit surprised to find the novel more... pop-y than I expected. (That's not very clear. The best adjective I can come up with is "Dan Brown-y," but that's a bit more unkind than I intend.) The story was full of slightly cheap thrills and most of the characters were a bit cartoonish.

That being said, I still stayed up too, too late finishing it, because I was really enjoying the fun, easy read. I loved the glimpse into the baffling world of art collecting, and I was VERY curious to see which shell the painting wound up under. (The dust jacket said the plot was a delightful game of cat-and-mouse, but it was also at least as much a shell game.)

Though the dust jacket also promised a shocking twist at the end (Archer's trademark in short stories), it all seemed pretty straight-forward to me. I guess

Spoiler

Tina

was maybe supposed to be the shocker? Or maybe

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the final switch of the painting that Krantz cut up? That was too much a forced coincidence to be very impressed there

. My suspension of disbelief was also tried a bit as the climax progressed and

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Krantz was able to crab-walk for hundreds of yards, climb buildings, and dive into laundry tubes while recovering from a gunshot wound.

So a fun read. I'll give some of his other novels a shot, though like Steven King, I suspect his real literary strength will continue to show best in his short stories.