Posted on July 18, 2009 by Nayab Naseer

The Eleventh Commandment is one of Jeffery Archer’s later and less popular novels. The plot starts with Helen Dexter, the chief of CIA deciding on her own the murder of political figures of other nations on the basis of their views on the USA, and finally contriving to have her chief assassin, Connor Fitzgerald, eliminated. The CIA sends Cooner on his final assignment to assassinate Victor Zermiski, a candidate for the Russian presidency inimical to the USA on account of his position on nuclear weapons. Cooner is however arrested in Russia. With the help of his friend Victor Jackson, he strikes up a deal with the Russian mafia. He fails in his mission to assassinate Victor and “dies” but returns to the USA as a professor without an arm.

The plot witnesses numerous twists and conspiracies and makes an exciting reading on its own right, but Archer has written better novels than the Eleventh Commandment.