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Summary
Summary
Connor Fitzgerald is a professional's professional. Holder of the Medal of Honor. Devoted family man. Servant of his country. But for the past twenty-eight years, Fitzgerald has been leading a double life as the CIA's most deadly assassin. And only days before his retirement from the CIA, he comes across an enemy who, for the first time, even he cannot handle. The enemy is his own boss - Helen Dexter - the director of the CIA. Dexter's stranglehold on the agency is threatened by one decision, and her only hope of survival is to destroy Fitzgerald. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a formidable new foe is threatening the United States: a ruthless hard-line Russian president, who is determined to force a new military confrontation between the two superpowers.
From emergency meetings in the Oval Office to a Russian mafya boss's luxurious hideaway outside St. Petersburg, The Eleventh Commandment sweeps readers off their feet from the first paragraph. As in Jeffrey Archer's previous bestsellers, The Eleventh Commandment features enough plot-twisting ingenuity, exotic characterization, and narrative surprise to take the art of thriller writing to a new level. In his latest novel, Jeffrey Archer is at the peak of his page-turning powers.
Author Notes
Jeffrey Archer was born on April 15, 1940, in London, England. After graduating from Brasenose College, Oxford, he founded his own company named Arrow Enterprises and promptly amassed a fortune. In 1969, he was elected to the House of Commons. A conservative Member of Parliament, he was, at the age of 29, the youngest member at that time. While in Parliament, he invested in a corporation and lost his fortune because of embezzlement. Devastated and facing financial ruin, he recounted his experiences in his book, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less. The success of this book launched his writing career.
His other works include Kane and Abel, Honor among Thieves, Shall We Tell the President?, A Quiver Full of Arrows, The Prodigal Daughter, and The Sins of the Father. He is also the author of The Clifton Chronicles series. He writes plays including Beyond Reasonable Doubt and The Accused. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment because of perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, and was released in July 2003. He published three volumes of his Prison Diary: Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. In 2014, his title Be Careful What You Wish For made The New York Times Bestseller List. In 2015 his title Mightier than the Sword made the same bestsller list.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
From the first line, former British M.P. Archer (The Fourth Estate, etc.) navigates a nonstop, rocketing ride. Middle-aged Connor Fitzgerald is a happily married man, decorated veteran and devoted father; he's also an "NOC," a "non-official cover officer" for the CIA specializing in assassinations. The killing of a Colombian drug lord leaves Connor out of sync with the Democratic president's policy, so the director of the CIA, a woman, sets Connor up to take the fall in a fake assassination of the leading candidate for the Russian presidency, an unreconstructed Stalinist. Connor (aided by an ex-CIA deputy director whose life he once saved) gets out of a St. Petersburg jail and falls into the hands of the Russian Mafia. Wheels spin within wheels until the slam-bang climax during the new Russian president's visit to Washington. Some plot details, including the final twist, are a tad hokey, and Connor keeps his much-touted charisma under wraps, yet Archer sweeps us along (and even finds time to write himself into the plot as London's mayor, a position he's seeking in real life). The only boo-boo here is Archer's unwitting revivification of flamboyant Redskins owner and Northern Virginia tycoon Jack Kent Cooke (though he was a character). In any case, readers won't mind the occasional giddiness: this isn't Tolstoy, it's fun. Simultaneous Harper audio. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
``This was the real world,'' CIA assassin Connor Fitzgerald reminds himself as he escapes from his latest messy job without a single ``Rambo-type helicopter'' for help. Fortunately, he couldn't be more wrong: He's got both feet firmly planted in Archerland Deluxe. After getting out of Colombia just in time for what would be the opening credits if this were a James Bond movie, beloved hit-man Connor, a decorated Vietnam vet and devoted family man who's only a wink and a smile from reassignment to a cushy desk job, gets the bad news: His hard-nosed boss, CIA director Helen Dexter, gives him a choice between heading the agency office in Cleveland (Cleveland!) and taking early retirement. Seems that Connor knows secrets that would help the exasperated President bury Dexter deep, and Dexter, rabidly opposed to a CIA-gutting arms reduction bill the Chief Executive's negotiating (and, at any rate, not one to go gently into that good night), has arranged a spectacular bit of treachery to make sure Connor never gets a chance to spill the beans. He's sent packing off to Moscow for one last job--to eliminate Victor Zerimski, the warmongering Communist candidate for the Russian presidency. It's just like Connor's other jobs, except for two differences: It hasn't been authorized by the White House (despite a tricky bit of techno-wizardry that fools Connor into thinking it has), and it's not supposed to be successful. Instead, Dexter's minions will tip the Russians off just in time to send Connor on a one-way ticket to St. Petersburg's fearsome Crucifix prison. Once Connor's locked away, the verdict and sentence are a foregone conclusion, and no one's escaped from Crucifix since best-selling Archer (Twelve Red Herrings, 1994, etc.) was a gleam in his ancestors' eyes. There's much, much more--roping in the Russian Mafiya, the Washington Redskins, a dozen double-crosses, and two returns from the grave--all of it the most rousing moonshine. ($250,000 ad/promo; author tour; radio/TV satellite tour)
Booklist Review
The focus of Archer's tenth novel--as was the case with many of his previous ones--is on global politics, with all the double-dealing and skulduggery inherent in that arena. The story begins with the assassination of a Colombian presidential candidate by one Connor Fitzgerald, considered to be a professional's professional. Fitzgerald is a CIA operative, and the dead candidate was the boss of a cocaine cartel. Fitzgerald is sent to Russia to do a number on the Communist Party leader who is running for president there. But Fitzgerald is arrested and thrown into an escape-proof prison where the eleventh commandment comes into play: "Thou shalt not get caught. But if you are, deny absolutely that you have anything to do with the CIA." It's a classic CIA sting, but with a difference--this time it is one of their own they leave languishing in a foreign jail. What keeps the suspense going is the fact that the U.S. president and the CIA director are vying for ultimate power, and if the president loses, it's good-bye Fitz. Archer has another best-seller in the making. --George Cohen
