Jeffrey Archer: The Prodigal Daughter

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An excellent sequel to Kane and Abel
Jeffrey Archer has been one of the world's best storytellers for over 25 years and all of his books have been page-turners for me. This is one of his early stories and a good one.  In part it is a sequel to his wordwide bestseller Kane and Abel but it is mainly about the lives of the children of Abel Rosnovski and William Kane.

At birth Abel gives his daughter, Florentyna, a Teddy Bear named "President" after US President Theodore Roosevelt, whose nickname was "Teddy". Florentyna's first word is not "Daddy" or "Mummy" but "Prusident" - a sign of things to come. At age 11 she makes a pact with her father for him to finance her Presidential campaign if she wins the first major primary for the Democratic Party.

Abel Rosnovski  gives Florentyna every support in her education, including employing a wonderful English Governess who guides her through her early days to give her the strength, personality and skills to become a very successful person both commercially and politically.

The bad blood between Abel Rosnovski and the powerful banker William Kane continues and escalates when Kane's son Richard meets Florentyna.

The latter part of the book covers Florentyna's commercial successes and eventual entry into US politics. Archer displays a detailed knowledge of the US political system. While it is an older book (1982) it is not dated and much of the political action is a reminder of more recent US political events.

As well as being a best selling author, Archer lived an eventful life as a UK Parliamentarian and Conservative Party Chairman and was made a life peer. His career was suspended when he was convicted and imprisoned for perjury. Despite all of these traumas Archer has never lost his great story telling skills.

His latest book - Sins of the Father in the Clifton Chronicles series - still has his magic touch and the ending will keep you in suspense again until he has written the next book in the series.