Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer.
The Sins of the Father
Jeffrey Archer
Hardback - Macmillan, A$45
There's no doubting Jeffrey Archer's ability to delight himself in the course of spinning the yarn of his ongoing Clifton Chronicles, and it has to be admitted that somehow - in the face of every critical reservation - the infection spreads and you end up enjoying his work.
The writing is naive to the point of being daft in both the plotting and execution, but then there's the surge and sweep of this story for adults who want the bumpy thrills of a lost childhood.
You may object that Archer makes the Famous Five look like Wilkie Collins, but there's an innocence in the pleasure this book aims for and attains for the reader.
The hero last seen in Only Time Will Tell on the edge of a cliffhanger finds himself on trial in New York and then in jail. There he pens a dazzling memoir (shades of his creator). Meanwhile, his beloved -- who may or may not be his sister -- hot tails it across the Atlantic in search of him.