Weekly novel reviews (The Eleventh Commandment by Jeffrey Archer)

Novel info:

Author: Jeffrey Archer

Connor Fitzgerald has an impressive resume. Military hero. Devoted family man. Servant of his country—as an assassin. Just as he’s about to put his twenty-eight-year career at the CIA behind him, he comes up against the most dangerous enemy he’s ever faced: His own boss, Helen Dexter.

As Director of the CIA, Dexter has always been the one to hold the strings. But when her status is threatened by a greater power, her only hope for survival is to destroy Fitzgerald. Meanwhile, the country braces itself as tensions with a new Russian leader reach the boiling point…and it’s up to Fitzgerald to pull off his most daring mission yet: To save the world. Even if that means risking everything—including his own life—in the process.

Novel Reviews:

Based on the novel The Eleventh Commandment by Jeffrey Archer. The opening chapters feature the action as Connor tracks and kills a Colombian presidential candidate and starts a chain of events that could lead to a new Cold War. He's an American Medal of Honor winner who is committed to his country, but also to his spiritual home, Ireland. Archer even pauses briefly to flesh out Connor's family life and the tensions of living with secrets that his wife and beloved daughter suspect but will never know. This character work pays off as the reader follows Connor through several nations and nearly as many identities. Gradually, Connor is caught in Russia between two power brokers: CIA director Helen Dexter and President Tom Lawrence. Dexter needs her 28-year veteran agent dead or "disappeared" in a Russian prison. But President Lawrence also needs Connor so he can finally rid himself of Dexter's tacit control of U.S. foreign policy. In the end, Connor must rely on old friends and native intelligence if he is to make it to his retirement alive. Fans of political intrigue, James Bond, and Tom Clancy will be drawn inexorably along for the ride.

I have become interested lately in CIA and spy novels. The most interesting event in this novel is that you don't expect a CIA assassin to be a truly honorable man, as was this main character. It was really interesting how the author immediately pulls you into the assassin's mind and gets you right on his side. Even though he was captured in Russia, he was calm to go through the hardship. One of the most important value that i have learnt in this novel is friendship. Jackson, who was Conner best friend sacrificed his life for Connor due to his sentence to death. It was a remarkable event where Jackson would sacrificed his life for Connor because he had helped him escape from the prison during the world war in Vietnam. As a student, what we can learn from the event above is we must find a good friend who will be there for us when we are happy or sorrow. 

I would recommend students to read this novel as it can improve their knowlegde about the politics between America and Russia. Students must know about the currrent issues which are important for them to enhance and develope their critical thinking in which will make them more mature in a community. 

I liked Archer's style of setting up characters throughout the book, resisting the temptation of telling you the characters' entire life story in the first chapter you meet them. I found myself thinking I knew how the story flows but you would unexpect the end of the story which might shock you. So overall it's a good novel.

VOCABULARY :

COMMEMORATED (VERB)

DEFINITION: 

to exist or take place to make people remember a special event.

EXAMPLE:

Both exhibitions commemorate the bicentenary of the death of Thomas Jones.

ACQUAINTANCE (NOUN)

DEFINITION:

a person that you know but is not a close friend; a slight knowledge about someone.

EXAMPLE:

He 's not a casual acquaintance whom you barely know.

INCONCEIVABLE (ADJECTIVE)

DEFINITION:

impossible or very difficult to believe or imagine.

EXAMPLE:

It seemed inconceivable that someone so loved, so full of life, could just go.