Don't Drink the Water: The Year of Short Stories – August

August’s brilliant instalment of The Year of Short Stories is Don’t Drink the Water. Released as one of a limited number of digital shorts released to celebrate the publication of Jeffrey Archer’s magnificent seventh short-story collection, Tell Tale.

Taken from Cat O’ Nine Tales, Jeffrey Archer's fifth collection of short stories, Don’t Drink the Water is a captivating, witty and ingenious short read.

Richard Barnsley is in St Petersburg to close a pipeline deal that will make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. Having spent years bribing the Energy Minister, Anatol Chenkov, the deal should go through smoothly. However, the president of Russia wants preside over the signing ceremony which means he needs to finalise the contract in a matter of weeks. But then Richard’s home life unravels when he finds a letter from a divorce lawyer intended for his wife. He suspects she is waiting for the deal to be signed before divorcing him, which leads Richard to take drastic action. . .