A Matter of Honour by Jeffrey Archer.

Adam Scott has been left an unopened envelope in his father’s will. Should he open it or let sleeping dogs lie? Well, if Adam had not opened the envelope, Jeffrey would not have been able to write this novel. So Adam opens this mysterious envelope and has to deal with the consequences!

This novel was written over 30 years ago and I have not read a novel by Jeffrey Archer before. The author had a long political career with the Conservative Party and has been imprisoned for perjury and perverting the course of justice. But as this book was featured as a Kindle Daily Deal for just £1.09p - I thought I would turn a blind eye to his history, grab a copy and read his book with an open mind.

I was very surprised by A Matter of Honour. It is set in 1966 and is a thriller involving fakes, lies and secrets. Modern thrillers contain a lot of detail about email, the internet and mobile phones. But over 50 years ago things were very different! No email, no internet and telephones were connected by copper cables, were not cordless and people used public call boxes by inserting coins in the booth. But people still told lies and bad guys still had to be tackled.

Although this novel was set over 50 years ago, it is still easy to relate to - easy for me as I had used pounds, shillings and pence in my childhood! So in my mind I thought about the time I was a child when I wondered what the adults were doing and what the fuss was all about.

I liked the style of how Jeffrey Archer told his story and for the written word, sounded like Ian Hislop on the BBC television comedy panel show, Have I Got News For You. The character development of Adam Scott was spot on and you could imagine his accent to be similar to Ian Hislop.

I liked the plot of A Matter of Honour and how you developed suspicions of all the characters. The pace was good and the story was engaging. I liked how all the little details sparked in your head making you think, “this is relevant”.

I found this book to be a joy to read, as I was transported back in time and into another world. For all the modern technology we have today, I can imagine these things still going on because of the way people are underneath. I was fully entertained by the depth of this story.

I liked the way Jeffrey Archer wrote this novel and how the characters told lies so easily, making me chuckle because of his own imprisonment for telling porkies. I thought his writing was very clear and the story easy to understand.

A Matter of Honour was a pleasant surprise for me and very different from my usual current day crime thrillers. I enjoyed it as my daily read and the quality of this novel gets the top score of 5 stars from me. I suggest readers forget the time period this novel is set in and just enjoy this story for what it is.

A Matter of Honour was published in 1986 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.