A Prisoner of Birth

Synopsis

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.

So begins A Prisoner of Birth, Jeffrey Archer’s most powerful novel since Kane and Abel, with a cast of characters who will remain with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

Interesting fact

Jeffrey was the winner of the Prix Polar International Prize for the best international thriller of the year, for his novel A Prisoner of Birth in Cognac, France, on Friday 16 October 2009. The prestigious awards have been running for over twelve years, and previous winners include Ben Elton and Camilla Läckberg. Jeffrey beat off stiff competition from ten other acclaimed international authors, including Arnaldur Indridason, Lisa Unger and Johan Theorin.

Video

Jeffrey talks about A Prisoner of Birth, his homage to the Dumas classic, The Count of Monte Cristo.