Cometh the Hour: Book Six Of the Clifton Chronicles (The Clifton Chronicles, 6) Mass Market Paperback – October 4, 2016

Pen is mightier than sword is an amazing book. I’m falling in love with the character Harry and his fight for free press. Now, I’m eager to read the final edition.

Six chronicles down, one to go, and then, maybe, the Clifton-Barrington families will finally be at peace. Court cases, business dealings, politics, international rescue attempts dominate Jeffrey Archer’s <i>Cometh the Hour</i>. Somehow, the bad guys on the other side are always the same; the evil Lady Virginia Fenwick, Desmond Muller, Adrian Sloane, Alex Fisher. They’re always on or off the boards of Barrington Shipping, chaired by Emma Barrington Clifton, and/or Farthings Bank, where Sebastian Clifton occupies high places.Fisher has been a nemesis to Giles Barrington and Harry Clifton since grammar school. He was in one of their units in World War II, is a perennial Conservative candidate against Labour Party representative Giles in Bristol Docklands, foil of Fenwick and her cabal, and threat to Emma’s chairmanship at Barrington Shipping, departs at the end of Book 5 when he commits suicide. But, he leaves a note that could be critical to deciding the libel case Fenwick has brought against Emma. Sibling loyalty is tested as the letter could exonerate Emma, but could damage Giles. Letter read, Emma acquitted.<i>Cometh the Hour</i> takes us from 1970-1978, so Harry and Giles age from 50-58, Emma from 49-57, and Sebastian from 30-38.Giles undertakes a rescue mission to East Germany to rescue Karin, his interpreter at a previous conference there, with whom he had a tryst and fell in love. He thinks he’s reuniting her with her English born father. Is Giles the one that’s been conned? Is she a spy and for which side?Not to be outdone by his uncle, Sebastian, who has had few relationships since his fiancé Samantha Sullivan left to return to America, falls for an Indian woman. Her father takes her back to India because she has already been promised to another. Sebastian heads to India to rescue Priya, but is tragically unsuccessful.From book 5, Sebastian knows that Samantha is married and lives in Washington, D.C. with Sebastian’s daughter, Jessica, obviously named for Sebastian’s adopted sister, another who died a tragic death. (Actually, the older Jessica was the out-of-wedlock daughter of Giles and Emma’s father and a Jewish refugee.) The younger Jessica shares the older Jessica’s talent for art. Sebastian had visited the school, but made an agreement with the principal that she not tell Samantha and Jessica he had been there. Then, the principal informs Sebastian that Samantha’s husband had died a year and a half before. Sebastian goes to Washington to see Jessica’s art exhibition at the school and attempts to buy her paintings, including one, <i>My Father</i>, of a blank faced man, when Jessica corners Sebastian. The 10-year old has plans to get her parents back together. Will she be successful?Sebastian is about to head for the dinner date, when he receives a call that his business partner, Hakim Bishara, who is about the become chair of the merger of Farthings and Kaufman Banks, has been arrested for trying to smuggle heroin into England from Nigeria. Sebastian doesn’t want to seem like he’s ditching Jessica and Samantha, but he must return to England. Of course, the drug smuggling is a nefarious plot of Sloane and Mellor. Another trial for the Clifton Chronicles.As for the nefarious Fenwick, her latest scheme is to pretend she slept with a wealthy Louisiana businessman when he was in London, and then she shows up at his wedding allegedly pregnant. Considering, she’s around 50, this is not likely. No one says that. She retains a Louisiana lawyer, who gets the businessman to pay support and for the child’s education. Virginia uses the child of her butler and maid and stashes him at a boarding school. Will the ruse catch up with her and will she receive a surprise about her father’s inheritance?Before Harry’s mother dies, she advises Emma to branch out in her interests. Emma joins the board of the hospital and becomes enamored of Margaret Thatcher, and vice-versa. Emma and Harry, despite his poor upbringing, are Conservative Party members, though, they always supported and worked for the election of Giles, who joined the Labour Party, despite his wealthy upbringing. Now, can peace reign in the family?As for Harry, his decade long advocacy for the release of Russian writer Anatoly Babakov is realized when Babakov receives the Nobel Prize for Literature. This ends sadly. What does the final chronicle hold in store for Harry? Will he just continue writing his Detective William Warwick books or there is something else?Yes, all kinds of story lines with the different characters, who are somehow always interconnected. Archer likes to separate the chapters by the characters and the years the narrative is to cover about that person.The cliff hanger until Book 7, Karin is missing and what will we find out about her? Will Harry, Emma, Giles and Sebastian ever find out if they are more "closely related?"

I really enjoy the author Jeffrey Archer and he certainly writes about subjects that he knows. How he thinks up all these intriguing plots is beyond me and he must have a very imaginitive and intricate mind. Does his mind ever stop working I wonder. The end result is that he writes these wonderful novels with surprising and mind boggling plots and at the end of each of the novels in this Clifton series he leaves us with total cliffhangers. How could anyone stop at one book. I am now just finishing the final book 7 and I have to say I have enjoyed every minute of them. He manages to captivate his audience and I shall really miss the Cliftons when I have finished the last page. They are all a really great read and I highly recommend all of them. I am considering reading Cain and Abel again which I think I read in my early twenties. Jeffrey Archer is such a consistently good story teller. Enjoy!

The book was new and came on time. Good service!

I continue to read this series in order to see what happens to this family I've been following for 5 books now. However, there are no major surprises in character development and some of the plot lines seem recycled -- as in "this is happening again?" -- and some plot lines are abruptly wrapped up in a way that strains credibility. All that said, it's an enjoyable enough diversion and very quick read. I'll read the last book just to see how it all wraps up, all the while hoping the series reverts to the form of the first few books in the series.

This book is the sixth of a seven-volume series about the adventures of the Cliftons, an upper-class British family whose members have reached the highest levels of their professions - best-selling author, chairman of the board of a large company, member of Parliament. . .you get the idea. The story has all the elements of a soap opera - because that's what it is - romance, big business deals, scheming to bring opponents down, and no question regarding which characters wear white hats and which wear black hats. All of the volumes held my interest and were quick reads, including this one. I liked the descriptions of life in England around the turn of the century, for both the rich and the poor, in the first two or three volumes. However, successive volumes became less interesting, and I only read them because I got hooked on the soap opera. I'll read the last one for the same reason. The story has some far-fetched plot lines that are hard to swallow - memorizing an entire book (with the ability to recite any page when prompted with the first sentence), faking a pregnancy, and more - I guess the author was running out of ideas. The whole upper class snobbery thing gets a little old also. But in spite of its shortcomings, if you like soap operas, you will like this series and this book.

The Clifton Chronicles written by Jeffrey Archer are compelling, entertaining, and thoroughly addictive! I suggest you start this series about several generations of the Cliftons and Barringtons at a time where you can stay up late and ignore your usual day to day schedule. It took me two weeks to get through all six novels around my usual schedule. I couldn't stop reading! Well written and well researched, I found myself coming to understand British people much more than I ever had. I'm looking forward to reading more from Mr. Archer. Now I just need to clear my calendar!

This set of books is getting more and more interesting and more and more intriguing. Only one to go and I am going to start that now. The characters are getting older but the twists and turns get more intense. I don't think even William Warwick can work out the ending.

As the 6th book in the series one can only expect another winner. Well written by Jeffrey Archer and a must read.

Evidemment, certains évènements, en particulier les intrigues de Lady Fenwick, semblent peu vraisemblables, mais ne boudons pas notre plaisir, le suspense est toujours haletant.On est un peu triste de voir s’approcher la fin de la saga.

Great 7 books !!!

Bellissimo libro di Archer, uno della Clifton Series. Letti tutti e li consiglio come lettura di piacere, per chi ama il genere.