A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer

About the book: If Danny Cartwright had proposed to Beth Wilson the day before, or the day after, he would not have been arrested and charged with the murder of his best friend. And when the four prosecution witnesses are a barrister, a popular actor, an aristocrat and the youngest partner in an established firm's history, who is going to believe his side of the story?
Danny is sentenced to 22 years and sent to Belmarsh prison, the highest security jail in the land, from where no inmate has ever escaped. But Spencer Craig, Lawrence Davenport, Gerald Payne and Toby Mortimer all underestimate Danny's determination to seek revenge and Beth's relentless quest to win justice, which forces all four protagonists to fight for their lives.

First line: "Yes'" said Beth. She tried to look surprised, but wasn't all that convincing as she had already decided that they were going to be married in secondary school.

My Thoughts: There is a possibility that this book will end up on my favorites list for the year. I was quite interested when I learned that this novel was a modernised version of Alexander Dumas' book The Count of Monte Cristo. I liked the way this book flowed, it was straight forward starting at the beginning and going on from there with a couple of twists especially at the end. The courtroom scenes were long but intense, there was a little sweet romance (not graphic,) switched identities, financial intrigue, forging, stamp collecting, and..... well more. Had I been reading this I might have found it to drag in the middle, however I listened to the unabridged version and thought that the person who read it, Roger Allam, did a fantastic job. I'm going to recommend this book to you, I think you'll enjoy it.

Rating:

Quote: "No, Mr Redmayne, not my tears. Although I've read that letter every day for the past eight months, those tears were not shed by me, but by the man who wrote them. He knew how much I loved him. We would have made a life together even if we could only spend one day a month with each other. I'd have been happy to wait twenty years, more, in the hope that I would eventually be allowed to spend the rest of my life with the only man I'll ever love. I adored Danny from the day I met him, and no one will ever take his place."