Best Kept Secret

In the third book of a series, we find out the ruling of the Lord Chancellor regarding Harry versus Giles as the proper heir to Hugo Barrington, his title, estate, and "all that therein is." Meanwhile, Emma searches for her missing half-sister; Sebastian grows older and more rambunctious; and Giles's political career reaches some highs and lows. In addition, Giles becomes romantically involved with a woman whom only he does not realize is despicable and cunning.

Nothing gold can stay, says the poet Robert Frost, and perhaps it's true. The Clifton Chronicles series took a serious downturn for me with this particular title. It's a little bit more plodding at times than the first two books, and it seems to take a while to figure out what show more the main conflict of the book will be. Spoiler: it's not a single big one but a series a small ones that seem to resolve rather quickly, with a few that are a bit more extended. Some of the conflict situations seemed a bit more contrived also (i.e., the whole Giles-Virginia relationship seemed unlikely to begin with), and the introduction of the nefarious Don Pedro just seems so tacked on and honestly a bit out of place with the rest of the series. Once again, the good people are all so moral and upright while the horrible people (i.e., Giles's sweetheart Virginia) are detestable in basically every respect.

There's less of the multiple perspectives in the story telling in this particular book. The first long section is Harry and Emma combined while the next is Giles's take, but honestly the third person omnipotent is used for every section that emerges, and we hear Harry's perspective nearly as much in Giles's section as we did in Harry's own. This is not necessarily a big deal, but it's a bit funny to see how the writing style changes from book to book within the series. We don't see Maisie anymore, which is disappointing, and only hear an occasional reference to her. Archer is clearly working more towards moving to the younger generation (i.e., almost exclusively Sebastian) so that the series can continue to progress. Best Kept Secret ends with the obligatory cliffhanger, but I have to admit that I'm not sure I'm hooked enough to move on to the next one when it comes out.

Some notes for the audio book readers: With no sections from Maisie and Emma's conflated with Harry's, there was no longer a need for Emilia Fox as narrator of this book, and her presence is missed. Alex Jennings carries most of the book very well but has this horrendous South American accent and ridiculous evil voice for Don Pedro and his henchmen, although to be fair they are a bit of caricatures in the text. show less

The third book of the Clifton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer follows Harry and Emma Clifton, their son, Sebastian, and Emma's brother Giles into the 1950s and 1960s. It picks up immediately after the events of Sins of the Father. And I do mean immediately. Giles and Harry are waiting to find out who will inherit the Barrington family fortune. As in all family sagas, some of the characters we loved in the first books, like Harry's mother, are neglected so we can start to focus on the next generation of the family.

Harry has become a successful author, Giles is now a Labour party MP, and Emma is getting more involved in the family shipping business and trying to find out what happened to the baby girl found in Sir Hugo Barrington's office on show more the night of his death. She discovers the baby, now called Jessica, is in fact her half sister and will leave no stone unturned to find and adopt her. One of the best things about Jeffrey Archer books is the over-the-top evil characters, like Alex Fisher. This book introduces the reader to Lady Virginia Fenwick, who will turn out to be one of the most manipulative women in fiction, and who coincidentally is Giles Barrington's fiancee. Sebastian heads off to school and becomes best friends with Bruno Martinez, whose mysterious father is a wealthy entrepreneur of dubious deals.

This is a compelling potboiler of drama, intrigue and revenge. While this might not be the best book of the three Clifton Chronicles I've read, I am completely hooked on the series. Archer could probably have cut out a number of pages in the book and it wouldn't have affected the flow of the story. Be warned that each and every one of these books seems to end in a cliffhanger and is essentially one long book (there are seven in total). I've been listening to the audios, narrated by Alex Jennings, who does an exceptional job. show less

This, the third volume of the Clifton Chronicles, got off to a slow start with a detailed account of an election. Interesting in a way, but it slowed the story somewhat. There was less suspense and then just as excitement began to build, another cliffhanger ending! Let's hope the library has a copy of the next in the series on the shelf.

Number three in a seven book series. This is a big fat family saga following one family from 1920 to the 1990's. I have a weakness for big fat family sagas. The first two books were primarily about setting up the family and resolving some internal conflicts. In this book the external conflicts really take the stage. Archer's books are often about seeking revenge. His first one, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less was a fabulous story of incredibly meticulous revenge and it's often a theme in his novels.

Nearing the middle of this series in the 1950's with this book, Archer firmly establishes the bad guys and sets them up to have reasons to hate the Barringtons and Cliftons. It's all just delicious soap opera or television miniseries show more style entertainment even though it's not anywhere close to literary fiction.

As always in this series, the book ends with a cliffhanger. While I'm not ready to read the next book right now I did read enough of the beginning of it to make sure my guess about the cliffhanger was correct. show less

The third book of the Clifton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer follows Harry and Emma Clifton, their son, Sebastian, and Emma's brother Giles into the 1950s and 1960s. It picks up immediately after the events of Sins of the Father. And I do mean immediately. Giles and Harry are waiting to find out who will inherit the Barrington family fortune. As in all family sagas, some of the characters we loved in the first books, like Harry's mother, are neglected so we can start to focus on the next generation of the family.

Harry has become a successful author, Giles is now a Labour party MP, and Emma is getting more involved in the family shipping business and trying to find out what happened to the baby girl found in Sir Hugo Barrington's office on show more the night of his death. She discovers the baby, now called Jessica, is in fact her half sister and will leave no stone unturned to find and adopt her. One of the best things about Jeffrey Archer books is the over-the-top evil characters, like Alex Fisher. This book introduces the reader to Lady Virginia Fenwick, who will turn out to be one of the most manipulative women in fiction, and who coincidentally is Giles Barrington's fiancee. Sebastian heads off to school and becomes best friends with Bruno Martinez, whose mysterious father is a wealthy entrepreneur of dubious deals.

This is a compelling potboiler of drama, intrigue and revenge. While this might not be the best book of the three Clifton Chronicles I've read, I am completely hooked on the series. Archer could probably have cut out a number of pages in the book and it wouldn't have affected the flow of the story. Be warned that each and every one of these books seems to end in a cliffhanger and is essentially one long book (there are seven in total). I've been listening to the audios, narrated by Alex Jennings, who does an exceptional job. show less

The Clifton Chronicle book# 3

The book picks up after the events in “The Sins of the Father” and is a real pot boiler that continues the Clifton gripping family and political sagas which spans the years 1945 to 1958 in this installment.

The momentum of the narrative swings between Giles Barrington, now Member of Parliament and the Cliftons: Harry and Emma. The first have of the story moves forward by the legal ruling as to who is the true heir of the Barrington’s and the second part see Sebastian, son of Harry and Emma embroiled in an international fraud crime. Eventually the two families use their influence to pulled Sebastian out of his mess and by the time we reach the last page we are left in a cliffhanger that we do not see show more coming. Plot-driven novels are hard to discuss without spoilers, so I will say no more…..

So far, I have enjoyed reading this series. The style is simple and the prose is straightforward with minimal description. Mr. Archer knows how to build tension to move his plot forward and how to leave us breathless by the end. The characters may be a bit the cookie cutter type but I love them the way they are. This is definitely a soap opera at its best….

“Best Kept Secret” tells a story by itself, with enough explanation of how the characters came to be without retelling the previous events but rather focussing one the events that were unfolding. Definitely worth reading it. show less

In this third episode, the focus shifts to the next generation of Cliftons and Barringtons, and some new players emerge. This book too ends at a suspenseful point, making the reader grab the next in the series; which is precisely what I'm going to do as soon as I finish this review...
The only issue so far with the series is that almost all the characters are either black or white, with nothing gray about them, which makes the story too simple to be written by the master. Nevertheless, the pages fly under the skillful authorship of Mr. Archer this time too and I'm off to read the next!