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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780061013317
ISBN: 0061013315
Label: HarperTorch
Manufacturer: HarperTorch
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 448
Publication Date: 1999-05-01
Publisher: HarperTorch
Product Release Date: 1999-04-07
Studio: HarperTorch

The Eleventh Commandment.

Connor Fitzgerald is a professional's professional. Holder of the Medal of Honor. Devoted family man. Servant of his country. CIA assassin. Days before his retirement from the Company, Fitzgerald comes face to face with an enemy who, for the first time, even he cannot handle--his own boss, Helen Dexter, Director of the CIA.

Thou Shalt Not Be Caught.

But Dexter's stranglehold on the agency is threatened by a power greater than her own, and her only hope is to destroy Fitzgerald. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a new threat to national security is emerging: a ruthless hardline Russian president who is determined to force a military confrontation between the two superpowers. It's up to the intrepid Fitzgerald to pull off his most daring mission yet--save the world.and his own life.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A good story nonetheless
Review: This is not Archer's finest book, but it is still a fun and engaging thriller. A great novel to read on a cold winter's night.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: or, "The Dumbest Assassin in the CIA"
Review: Forget the implausibility of the "youngest Notre Dame quarterback ever" and a medal of Honor receipient becoming an undercover operative. Or the fact that Connor Fitzgerald has a strict, old-fashioned moral code...after all, he won't shoot a political candidate in cold blood until the President of the US tells him it's OK. (Slight spoilers follow.)

No, the guy is just dumb. He's worked for the CIA for 28 years, and when he's forced to quit, he can't figure out why a great job offer from a private corporation is suddenly withdrawn. Of course, this makes it convenient for him to be called back for a "last job". Then, he can't tell the difference between the real, live President and a computer-generated phone call...even when the secretary points out that the President didn't call him by his first name, as he is known to do. Then he's given all the supporting documentation for his assignment and is told, for the first time in 28 years, "Hey, you don't have to sign for it this time. We'll take care of all that when you get back." I think I would have figured out by then that I didn't need to renew my gym membership for next year.

Archer has done much better.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Great, great thriller
Review: Connor Fitzgerald, a Medal of Honor recipient and devoted family man, has been leading a double life as a the CIA's most deadly assassin. Only days before his retirement he is pitted against an unlikely enemy-his own boss, Helen Dexter, director of the CIA. Dexter's stranglehold on the agency is threatened by one decision, and her only hope of survival is to destroy Fitzgerald. Meanwhile, an international crisis looms when a ruthless Russian president is determined to force a military confrontation between the Russia and the U.S. From urgent meetings in the Oval Officer to a Russian mafya boss's luxurious hideaway outside St. Petersburg, "The Eleventh Commandment" is a gripping read.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: watch the weather channel
Review: The Eleventh Commandment belongs in Archer's head, not on paperback. It's poorly written with a washy protagonist, and an incredible villian. The plot is threadbare.
For first time readers of Archer: Please don't judge him on this appalling work, he is better than this.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: unbelievable thriller
Review: This is the first novel I have read by bestselling novelist Jeffrey Archer - and it will likely be the last. "The Eleventh Commandment" stretches credibility to such lengths that I lost all trust in the book. The first assault on credibility is the fact that the main character, Connor Fitzgerald, an assassin for the CIA, is a regular boy-scout kind of guy much admired for the content of his character as well as his chillingly efficient professional skill. Give me a break! Nice, normal guys, I don't think, go around murdering people in cold blood as a profession.

The author is clever at setting a good scene with authentic details and he might have sold me on the notion that nice guys can be assassins - but he couldn't sell me a wholesale lot of plot twists and turns which add up to implausibility. Connor is so smart and has so many friends that leap into the story to help him out at critical points that he outwits everyone - the CIA, the Russians, the Russian Mafya (yes, it's spelled that way) -- evading capture and execution and effortlessly finding opportunities to stalk heavily-guarded world leaders. Thus, about half-way through the book, I began to lose interest in the story and from then on I just turned pages quickly to get to the end.

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