Lightweight, entertaining beach reading.
The fourth volume of Archer's (Best Kept Secret, 2013, etc.) Clifton Chronicles finds the Barrington-Clifton family ensnared in financial conspiracies over a make-or-break Barrington Shipping project.
As Archer covers the family drama from 1957 to ’64, Harry Clifton—a married-into-money war hero and best-selling crime writer—is relegated to supporting player while his wife, Emma Barrington Clifton, steps to center stage. Emma becomes chairman of her family shipping company when the former leader’s pet project—the construction of a luxury liner—runs aground; it was sabotaged during construction in Belfast by family enemy and Nazi-sympathizing Argentinian gangster Don Pedro Martinez in alliance with the IRA. Martinez hates the Barrington-Cliftons since they disrupted his plans to dispose of millions in Nazi counterfeit money, as recounted in Volume 3. Here, in the prologue, it's revealed that Martinez's attempt to kill Sebastian Clifton, Harry and Emma’s son, in revenge for that loss resulted in the death of his own son. As Emma assumes leadership of Barrington Shipping, Martinez secures a significant stake and begins a scheme to sink the company. A minor storyline follows Sir Giles, Emma’s brother, and his Labor Party political ambitions. Archer introduces two new supporting players: Cedric Hardcastle, a banker who takes a shine to Sebastian, and Robert—"No one calls me Mr. Bingham except the taxman"—Bingham, a heart-of-gold fish paste–manufacturing millionaire. Hardcastle and Bingham join a complex scheme to manipulate the Barrington stock price in order to bankrupt the Argentinian. Archer cranks up the melodrama with an unexpected suicide and shows an insider’s flare for great food, wine, art and architecture. It's only Sebastian who’s the subject of any character development, growing from indifferent student to Hardcastle's trusted assistant, all while meeting an ambassador’s daughter who becomes his bride-to-be. Archer’s unremarkable prose but tight plotting make for a page-turning rich man’s soap opera. He concludes with a Perils of Pauline supercliffhanger certain to frustrate—and create clamor for Clifton-Barrington No. 5.
Lightweight, entertaining beach reading.Pub Date: March 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-250-03448-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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