Review: Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer

Only Time Will Tell
Author:  Jeffrey Archer
Copyright:  2011
Publisher:  St. Martin's Press
Release date:  September 2011
Pages: 386
ISBN 9780312539559
Source:  A huge thank you to St. Martin's press for approaching me to review Only Time Will Tell and providing me with an Advance Reader's Edition.  This has not influenced my opinion nor this review.

Only Time Will Tell is also available as an audio book from MacMillan Audio.  (unfortunately, at the time of this writing, I have not yet received a copy of Only Time Will Tell on audio book.)

The epic tale of Harry Clifton’s life begins in 1920, with the chilling words, ‘I was told my father was killed in the war.’ But it will be another twenty years before Harry discovers how his father really died, which will only lead him to question who was his father?

Is he the son of Arthur Clifton, a stevedore who worked in Bristol docks, or the first born son of a scion of West Country society, whose family owns the Barrington Shipping Line?

Only Time Will Tell covers the years from 1920 to 1940, and includes a cast of memorable characters that The Times has compared to The Forsyte Saga. Volume one takes us from the ravages of the Great War to the outbreak of the Second World War, when Harry must decide whether to take up a place at Oxford, or join the navy and go to war with Hitler’s Germany.

You will be taken on a journey that you won’t want to end, but when you turn the last page of this unforgettable yarn, you will be faced with a dilemma that neither you, nor Harry Clifton, could have anticipated.  (from the author's site:  http://www.jeffreyarcher.co.uk/site/only-time_will_tell)

Only Time Will Tell is the first book in The Clifton Chronicles and was released in the US August 30, 2011.  It is available as an ebook, audio book or hardcover at Amazon and your favourite bookstore near you.  

Only Time Will Tell is the saga of the Cliftons and the Barringtons, two families whose lives are intertwined forever because of one night.  It is the story of love, passion, greed and honour, murder and mystery, and is an epic page turner.  Visit the town of Bristol as seen through young Harry's eyes, son of a deceased war hero and a mother who will do anything to ensure her son's happiness and the best chance for a fulfilling life. For years Harry knows one truth about his father but it will be on his wedding day that the real story of his father's death is revealed and who was responsible.  That day will call into question his paternity.  That day will change the course of his life.

This was my first Jeffrey Archer novel and certainly will not be the last.  Jeffrey Archer has a knack for storytelling that pulls you in, with plot twists, which reveal only a little at a time, so at the very end the reader sits back with a gasp, realizing how magnificent a tale they have just had the pleasure of exploring.  I wait in great anticipation for news of the release of the second of the chronicles.  

Only Time Will Tell is one of my favourite new releases of 2011 and is sure to be on the bestseller lists!

Meet the author:

Jeffrey Archer was educated at Oxford University. He has served five years in Britain’s House of Commons and fourteen years in the House of Lords. All of his novels and short story collections--including And Thereby Hangs a Tale, Kane and Abel, Paths of Glory and False Impression--have been international   bestselling books. Archer is married with two sons and lives in London and Cambridge.  His website: http://www.jeffreyarcher.co.uk/site

Now you can visit Harry Clifton's Bristol from Only Time Will Tell at http://visitbristol.co.uk/site/only-time-will-tel">Visit Bristol.