It has often been said that Jeffrey Archer's career is reflected in his fiction--or, in some cases, that his fiction is reflected in his career. Both have attracted a lot of public attention and have become the center of much controversy. A man of...

After the enormous commercial success of his recent novels, "Kane and Abel" and "The Prodigal Daughter," one can easily understand why Jeffrey Archer and his publisher would bring out a collection of his short stories. But it is difficult to comprehend what conceivable enjoyment readers will derive from the sophomoric fictions in "A Quiver Full of Arrows," which suggest the author is unaware that the genre has made strides since the days of O. Henry. In a prefatory ...