Too Many Coincidences | A Short Story By Jeffrey Archer | Personal Review

The name of the ace author Jeffrey Archer is taken with respect in the literary world. He has given some really fantastic thrillers that readers across countries have adored.

A humble human being and vocal cricket fan – Mr. Jeffrey Archer – has decades of legacy in the field of literature.

Whenever we see his name on the book, we can rest assured that we are looking at a potential reading experience to be unveiled. We enjoyed reading many of his thrillers and admire him.

To attract more and more people towards reading, the year 2018 was celebrated as – The Year of Short Stories – in which many of Mr. Archer’s short stories are made available to read for free; as individual short E-Books.

Today, we are going to talk about one such short EBook – Too Many Coincidences.

Book Cover:

Being a gateway to the fictional world explored within, the cover page is responsible for making the first impression of the book. And, we, human beings, by nature, are attracted towards a beauty. And, thus we need to accept the fact that a cover page can influence a remarkable number of potential readers to buy/read the book.

As you can see, the cover page of this short is simple yet appealing.

The deisgner has used blue and white combinations to show vastness and not-so-corrupted mindset of the protagonist couple. The two boats shown plays quite an important role in the book. In fact, they are the reasons the characters in the book connect with each other. A thoughtful design.

Storyline:

Let us take a bird’s eye view of the book plot.

Ruth is a traditional woman living a happy married life. She and her husband has an age gap. But, the bond of love has made them stick together. And, they are in love with each other.

Her husband is at the stage of his life where he is quite cautious when it comes to money. Though, they have their vacations and escapades, he don’t believe in just throwing away money. So, they are living a moderately good life. A life that almost every middle-class family experiences.

Once upon a time, they went to an island for their scheduled retreat cum vacation, where they coincidently meets a young and charming fellow.

The young fellow is good at finance and deals in properties. He makes a handsome amount of money and lives a joyous life.

Somehow, Ruth and him are attracted towards each other, and,… their lives changes from that point forward.
The rest of the story is better to explore by reading the book, rather than discussing much about. Over the course of the story, you meet with Ruth, Max Bennett, Angus Henderson, Valerio, Gerald Prescott, Dr. Sinclair, and others.

Views And Reviews:

Writing a short story is like walking on a tightrope. You need to make it quite interesting from the very first page, as author cannot take time to build things here unlike in full-fledged novels. I must say the author does it quite well. It starts with…

Whenever Ruth looked back on the past three years– and she often did– she came to the conclusion that Max must have planned everything right down to the last detail– yes, even before they’d met.

And, to show his genius, the author ends the story with

Whenever Ruth looked back on the past three years– and she often did– she came to the conclusion that Max must have planned everything right down to the last detail. Yes, even before they had bumped into each other.

See, how brilliant he is!

In such books, the characters have to be convincing. The author has induced so much layers, twits and turns to let you connect with the characters. None of the events happened unconvincingly.

For example, the scene, when Ruth and her husband meets with Max, looks so natural. And, Ruth’s falling for him, their frequent escapades, the relationships of the trio, the advocates, all of them are elaborated quite well. Their meetings in restaurants are also quite interesting.

The author takes us to the world of properties, solicitors and how elderly people think safeguarding their future for the last days of their lives; how they meet each other and how the technicalities of laws plays their part – quite authentic.

At times, you feel sad for the characters and how they are duped! That is the success of the author.

Various elements are elaborated like living characters including Ruth’s home, her landline, Sea Urchin, The Scottish Belle and other stuff.

Actually, there are many aspects of the story I want to talk about and quote more stuff, but to avoid spoilers, I need to stop here.

Summary:

On the whole, if you love reading short thrillers, you shouldn’t miss it.

ThinkerViews Rating:

Around 8 out of 10.

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Over To You:

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