Table of Contents
PRAISE FOR JEFFREY ARCHER AND HIS BESTSELLING NOVELS
Archer is a master entertainer.
Time magazine
One of the top ten storytellers in the world.
Los Angeles Times
Archer is one of the most captivating storytellers writing today. His novels are dramatic, fast-moving, totally entertainingand almost impossible to put down.
Pittsburgh Press
Cunning plots, silken style Archer plays a cat-and-mouse game with the reader.
The New York Times
A storyteller in the class of Alexandre Dumas Unsurpassed skill making the reader wonder intensely what will happen next.
The Washington Post
FIRST AMONG EQUALS
A dramatic plot An absorbing read.
Detroit Free Press
Not since Gore Vidals 1876 has there been such a cliff-hanger aspect to an election and to the selection of a head of government At the conclusion, Archer brings the reader to a moment of truth a surprising finish.
The San Diego Union
This engrossing, well-spun tale of ambition and will-to-power is a pick-hit in the summer sweepstakes. Archer received his usual high marks for readability and gives his novel a pleasing sense of substance.
Publishers Weekly
THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER
Chalk up another smash hit for Jeffrey Archer an exceptional storyteller.
John Barkham Reviews
Fast-moving and compelling.
Library Journal
KANE &ABEL
A smashing good read!
The Des Moines Register
I defy anyone not to enjoy this book, which is one of the best novels I have ever read.
Otto Preminger
A sprawling blockbuster!
Publishers Weekly
Grips the reader from the first page to the last. A smash hit.
John Barkham Reviews
AS THE CROW FLIES
A certified page-turner.
New York Daily News
Archer has an extraordinary talent for turning notoriety into gold, and telling fast-moving stories.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
An endearing story.
The Wall Street Journal
Archer plots with skill, and keeps you turning the pages.
The Boston Globe
Top flight Mr. Archer tells a story to keep you turning those pages.
The Washington Post
Great fun!
Kirkus Reviews
THE FOURTH ESTATE
Telling Triumphant Proceeds in bursts of energy, like automatic fire.
London Times
Well-crafted and accomplished.
The Spectator
HONORAMONG THIEVES
The action is furious.
Los Angeles Times Book Review
Outrageous and top-notch terror.
Vogue
Witty, action-filled Archers masterful narrative provides thrills and surprises.
Publishers Weekly
A taut, international political thriller, professionally crafted and plotted. The action and dialogue move forward seamlessly with no loose ends Honor Among Thieves has excitement, currency and humor, and is expertly constructed. It will be another in the string of wildly successful novels by Jeffrey Archer.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
ALSO BY JEFFREY ARCHER
NOVELS
Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less
Shall We Tell the President?
Sons of Fortune Kane & Abel
The Prodigal Daughter
First Among Equals
A Matter of Honor
As the Crow Flies
Honor Among Thieves
The Fourth Estate
The Eleventh Commandment
SHORT STORIES
A Quiver Full of Arrows
A Twist in the Tale
Twelve Red Herrings
To Cut a Long Story Short The Collected Short Stories
PLAYS
Beyond Reasonable Doubt
Exclusive
The Accused
DIARIES
A Prison Diary, Volume I
Purgatory, A Prison Diary, Volume II
NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as unsold and destroyed to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this stripped book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A QUIVER FULL OF ARROWS
Copyright (c) 1980 by Jeffrey Archer.
Cover photo (c) Luis Veiga/Photonica.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
ISBN: 0-312-93769-5
EAN: 80312-93769-0
Printed in the United States of America
Hodder and Stoughton edition published 1980
Pocket Books edition published 1983
HarperTorch edition / July 2001
HarperPaperbacks edition / November 1993
St Martins Paperbacks edition / September 2005
St Martins Paperbacks are published by St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To VICTORIA
AUTHORS NOTE
Of these eleven short stories, ten are based on known incidents (some embellished with considerable license). Only one is totally the result of my own imagination.
The Luncheon was inspired by W Somerset Maugham.
J. A.
THE CHINESE STATUE
The little Chinese statue was the next item to come under the auctioneers hammer. Lot 103 caused those quiet murmurings that always precede the sale of a masterpiece. The auctioneers assistant held up the delicate piece of ivory for the packed audience to admire while the auctioneer glanced around the room to be sure he knew where the serious bidders were seated. I studied my catalogue and read the detailed description of the piece, and what was known of its history.
The statue had been purchased in Ha Li Chuan in 1871 and was referred to as what Sothebys quaintly described as the property of a gentleman, usually meaning that some member of the aristocracy did not wish to admit that he was having to sell off one of the family heirlooms. I wondered if that was the case on this occasion and decided to do some research to discover what had caused the little Chinese statue to find its way into the auction rooms on that Thursday morning more than one hundred years later.
Lot Number 103, declared the auctioneer. What am I bid for this magnificent example of ?
Sir Alexander Heathcote, as well as being a gentleman, was an exact man. He was exactly six feet three and a quarter inches tall, rose at seven oclock every morning, joined his wife at breakfast to eat one boiled egg cooked for precisely four minutes and two pieces of toast with one spoonful of Coopers marmalade and drink one cup of China tea. He would then take a hackney carriage from his flat in Cadogan Gardens at exactly eight-twenty and arrive at the Foreign Office at promptly eight fifty-nine, to return home again on the stroke of six oclock.
Sir Alexander had been exact from an early age, as became the only son of a general. But unlike his father, he chose to serve his Queen in the diplomatic service, another exacting calling. He progressed from a shared desk at the Foreign Office in Whitehall to third secretary in Calcutta, to second secretary in Vienna, to first secretary in Rome, to Deputy Ambassador in Washington, and finally to minister in Peking. He was delighted when Mr. Gladstone invited him to represent the government in China, as he had for some considerable time taken more than an amateur interest in the art of the Ming dynasty. This crowning appointment in his distinguished career would afford him what until then he would have considered impossiblean opportunity to observe in their natural habitat some of the great statues, paintings and drawings that he had previously been able to admire only in books.
