A Prisoner of Birth, by Jeffrey Archer

This was another book I read in Mexico. A perfect book for the beach. About a quarter of the way through, I said to Jeff that Jeffrey Archer's novel is a copycat of Alexandre Dumas, père's The Count of Monte Cristo. Sure enough, soon afterward, references to Dumas's count appeared in Mr Archer's story. Let's say the imitation is even less plausible than the original, but just as much fun. I'd hate to believe that class still matters so much in today's Britain though...