Tag Archives: Jeffrey Archer

Library Books to Start the New Year

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Libby, the email librarian, has been offering me “skip-the-line” books lately, with a seven day deadline to finish.  Ready to meet the challenge, I finished two books in record time, while ignoring others under the usual three week time frame.  The pressure to finish before Libby surreptitiously swallows my book back into the void is a challenge I cannot ignore.

The Vanishing Half

Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half did not tempt me when it was first published, despite accolades from Barack Obama, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, and others.  I usually buy a book immediately – hardback, if I can wait a few days,  or ebook, if I need it now  – sometimes even preordering, when a new book is one I want to read and review immediately.  When I order from the library, I  expect I will have forgotten why I did by the time it appears six months later on my screen, but Libby’s “skip-the-line” brought The Vanishing Half forward sooner than expected.

Mirroring the theme from the film Imitation of Life, with a black woman passing as white, Bennett creates a novel about twin sisters, one choosing to live her adult life as a black woman and the other as a wealthy white woman. Desiree returns to her mother’s house in the small Southern town where she grew up, while Stella moves on to the big city to marry a white man who knows nothing about her background.  Their lives grow predictably different, with one struggling through poverty and the other eventually becoming a college professor.  Their daughters meet as adults, with one in medical school in love with a transgender and the other a struggling blond actress.

A Local book club picked this book for a future zoom discussion and questions rifle through the story as well as in the ending. Looking beyond the issues of race, this all white female book group might consider Libby’s pointed analysis of the book: “how a person’s past shapes decisions, desires, and expectations, and explore… {how some} feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.”

Hidden in Plain Sight

Eighty year old author and former member of Parliament, Jeffrey Archer, is still writing compelling stories with delicious hanging threads at the end to tease readers into the next novel with his characters continuing their adventures.  Hidden in Plain Sight is the second book featuring Detective William Warwick. As with the Clifton Chronicles, the Warwick novels create a family saga, as the novels follow William through his career, his loves, and his family.  Using his trademark twists, Archer chronicles the characters’ triumphs and tragedies,   This one was easy to finish quickly, and a nice distraction from the present day world.

 

 

Jeffrey Archer is Back

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Some run for elected office in their seventies; others write books.  Jeffrey Archer, 79, will be in his eighties when his new book – Nothing Ventured – continues the story of Detective William Warwick in a new family saga.  Archer has not lost his touch; his new story takes the reader on a wild ride with fast turns and switchbacks as the characters pursue crimes in art and antiquities.

Fans of Archer’s Clifton Chronicles will recognize Detective William Warwick as the fictional character created by author Harry Clifton, in his popular and lucrative detective series.   Archer now centers his new family saga on Warwick in a clever spinoff.

In this first in a series, Warwick foregoes following the family tradition of studying law to earn a degree in art history, followed by a career as a constable and novice detective.  His police work is enhanced by his good looks and his intelligence, as he gets opportunities to prove himself in the field.  Like all Archer’s characters, Warwick is easy to like and to follow, and the story pits him against a civilized and brilliant villain to keep the plot rolling.

Archer usually ends with a cliff hanger leading into the next book in the series, and he delivers enough of a tease at the end of this story to tempt the reader into the next book featuring a battle of wills between Warwick and criminal mastermind Miles Faulkner.  Keep writing, Lord Archer, we can’t wait for the next installment.

Three Quick Reads to Start the Year

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A short list of books to begin January, 2019:

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  1. Heads You Win 

Jeffrey Archer is back with another cliff hanger, examining what if the other road were taken.  After a harrowing escape from Russia, the life of the main character switches between Alex and his mother in New York City and Sasha (same character) in London.  The parallel lives of the same character follow a fast-paced thriller in alternating chapters, with a surprise ending.

     2. Night of Camp David

Fletcher Knebel’s 1965 novel about a deranged President has made a comeback, probably because fiction may not be far from the present truth.  The political thriller features “an unhinged American president who falls prey to his own paranoia and conspiratorial fantasies, as people around him struggle to rein in his worst impulses.”  Sound familiar?

     3. The Bookshop of Yesterdays

Amy Meyerson’s mystery adds a little romance and familiar literary references to Melinda’s surprise inheritance of a bookshop. Although I had solved the puzzle early in the story, I still enjoyed the read – and learned about a few icons I didn’t know were adopted, including Eleanor Roosevelt and John Lennon.

 

 

Tell Tale – Shorts by Archer

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9781447252290tell tale_5_jpg_260_400    After following the characters in Jeffrey Archer’s Clifton Chronicles for years (one character was named after me, but only my first name appears in one of the short stories), it’s a relief to have a few shorts without cliffhangers in Archer’s new book of short stories – Tell Tale.

In fourteen short stories, Archer targets a range of characters and lifestyles, from the bank executive forced to retire months before his pension, to the iron monger who became a theologian.  In one story, “The Holiday of a Lifetime,” Archer offers the reader a choice of endings, and two well-known literary characters pop up in “A Wasted Hour” and “A Good Toss to Lose.”   Demonstrating his talent for writing clever plots, Jeffrey Archer begins and ends his collection with stories confined to 100 words; the others are varying lengths, but each has a surprising O’Henry twist at the end.

Archer’s newest collection of short stories is as entertaining as his novels, and he ends with a teaser for his fans – the first four chapter of his next novel – “Heads You Win” to be published next year – I can’t wait.

This Was a Man – The Final Volume of the Clifton Chronicles

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9781250061638_p0_v6_s192x300  With the same fast-paced intensity as the six books leading up to this final entry in The Clifton Chronicles,  Jeffrey Archer’s This Was a Man leads the reader back to the family saga of the Barringtons and the Cliftons.  Although the last two books included my name ( a result of winning a contest), this final volume has no Ph.D. with good advice.  The main characters do return, and Archer successfully reminds the reader of past adventures but it would be easier to binge read all the books together – if you could.

Cunard has bought out the Barrington ocean liners, Harry has been knighted, and Margaret Thatcher is in office, with Emma newly appointed to championing a health care bill. Villains return too, with Lady Virginia artfully and greedily worming her evil through the scenes.

Archer skillfully addresses each family member in the line, providing successful outcomes as their lives continue to develop and interact.  Despite the novel’s length and the complications of following a number of characters across dissecting story lines, Archer has the unique ability to maintain clarity, helping the reader follow with anticipation and sometimes with empathy, as he weaves his storytelling drama across generations.

The character Harry Clifton offers an undeniable clue to the ending of Archer’s last volume – it really is the end –  and Archer uses his last pages to revisit highlights of his previous six novels.   The family saga is over.  But maybe it will reappear someday as a modern Forsythe Saga in a BBC special drama series.  I would welcome it to my Sunday nights.