37 of 38 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another Archer masterpiece, Mar 11 2012
By BSG - Published on Amazon.com
** No spoilers here **
Once again Jeffrey Archer has delivered a real page-turner.
There's the usual plot twists that the regular Archer readers will see coming, but from the first page to the last I was hungry for more.
Without giving anything away, the ending sets up the third book in the series nicely.
However those that want to read the book as a "stand alone" should steer clear at this stage - you really need to read "Only Time Will Tell" first, and you're going to have to wait another 12 months for the next installment to clean up the loose ends.
If you enjoyed "Only Time Will Tell" then this book is a worthy follow-up.
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
fabulous, Mar 4 2012
By avid 41 - Published on Amazon.com
I just could not put this one down, but being by Jeffery Archer, no surprise there, he has this knack of getting his readers in the palm of his hand from the very first page, well worth the read fabulous, thoroughly enjoyed it , a must have !!!!!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
This was a good Archer novel but not a great one!, May 12 2012
By Robert R Snowden - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Sins of the Father (Hardcover)
So, why not a great one? Well, firstly it is obviously the middle book in (at least?) a trilogy as you will see by the ending, but that's OK. I do, however, look forward somewhat to what I hope will be the finale! Any longer and we will be approaching an "exploitation" scenario! Firstly, some kudos! It was a nice touch by Mr. Archer for naming a character in the book, after presumably a friend who passed away, and a good guy at that and that's all I'll say. Secondly the book is highly readable, and like other Archer books, one that is hard to put down for mundane stuff like eating and sleeping! However, it does have some relatively big faults! I was somewhat disappointed that 2 of the main characters in the book (I'll not tell you who they are so as not to be a spoiler; you can work it out for yourself) are IMO "short changed" in that one of them literally disappears for 4 years, out of a 6 1/2 year time span for the book, and the other for three, with only a brief explanation over their "missing" years before they appear again, which I found to be very annoying. They disappear for years then pop up for the last few chapters, frankly IMO just to "whet your appetite" for the last book. It seemed to me this was also to keep the book to a "short" 339 pages which is also an annoyance, when you consider the 500-700 page length of most of Mr. Archer's other books! I also dislike this trend among authors of taking a good sized novel and adding a middle book as a "filler" to create a trilogy to extend/increase their revenues and Mr. Archer does that here, and as I said before, this novel is just a bridge to a final one! I find this crassly exploitive of reader's loyalties! At least with an author like Bernard Cornwell, and, for example his series like the "Saxon Stories" and the "Grail Quest", you know upfront that there are more books coming in the series but each one is a separate novel in itself with a hard and satisfying ending that still leaves you really wanting the next chapter/book in the series! At least Mr. Archer, so far, writes all the books himself, unlike other authors, such as James Patterson, who puts his name to some of his co-authored books that I believe are largely written by other authors, who quite frankly would have a hard time getting their ideas published, another pet peeve of mine.
So overall a decent "bridging" book and read but an expensive one (for its length/plot), but hopefully the final one will be much, much better. I think 3 stars is a very fair rating for this book, at best!
