The Sins of the Father (The Clifton Chronicles) (The Clifton Chronicles, 2)

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I thought that the author said it all when he states that “Whatever else he had done, whoever else he had been, he had been my father, and I loved him more than my own life. And he had loved me. Whatever the world thought of either one of us, I had to hold on to that truth. I also had to grasp a new truth. I was not my father. I never had been.” He does not romanticize his father's sins, and there were many, but this really does touch on the 'shades of grey' (between what is right and wrong) reality of the world we exist in. As much as this book holds the horrors of the criminal underworld, it too has captured tenderness between father and son.

Fans of intricate family sagas and/or soap operas would probably like 'The Clifton Chronicles' and I strongly recommend this book to them. World War II was about to break out and a downcast Harry went off to join the British Navy. His ship was sunk and Harry was rescued by a U.S. ocean liner. When an American sailor named Tom Bradshaw died, Harry - wanting to escape his family drama - assumed Bradshaw's identity. This was a mistake! On landing in New York 'Tom Bradshaw' (Harry) was arrested for killing his brother.....and Harry's people were notified that he died at sea. The focus remains on the identity of Harry's father,as that would have a bearing on his future.But that identity still cannot be proved,in this book. Albert also becomes entangled in his father's business as he becomes older, eventually being asked by his father to do various things for him. Although while doing so, his father, who at this point was increasingly desperate, vocally expressed his regret about having to involve a son who he never wanted in his business. We get to see another side of Roy DeMeo that the history books don't paint in between paragraphs about his grisly murders, the story of a father who did everything right by his kids and wife. The book often reads like the perspective of Michael Corleone if he were in Goodfellas.

By the end of the book there's a question about the rightful heir to the Barrington title and fortune: Is it Hugo's legitimate son Giles; or Hugo's (presumably) illegitimate son Harry? This is the cliffhanger that ends the narrative. A suspenseful, emotionally charged real-life Sopranos: The son of New York's most notorious Mafia killer reveals the conflicted life he led being raised by a cold-blooded murderer, who was also a devoted family man, and the wrenching legacy of Mafia family life. First, you cant appreciate this book without having read the other, so that is already a dependence, a handicap which must be recognised - it is not a level playing field. Second, the Prisoner's Diary bit is already a borrowed theme from Jeffery Archer's non fiction chronicle of his experiences. Third, knowing that there is a third book coming, one could predict the tied vote in Parliament, but it is a let down for someone who may not want to go further with the trilogy only to find out about the vote. It is as though Jeffery has asked us all to wait through a long commercial break. Many may have forgotten the first one by then. Overall, the primary theme in this installment is the complexity of family bonds- the good, the bad and the ugly. There are a few interesting juxtapositions and plenty of food for thought. The book serves as a sequel to Only Time Will Tell, the first part of the Clifton Chronicles. It was followed by Best Kept Secret, published in March 2013.

The book is well written. The plot twists and turns. Jance inserts some humor in the story. J. P. Beaumont is now retired from the police force and is working as a licensed private investigator. His wife, Mel, is the Chief of Police of Bellingham. In this book Beau is hired to find a missing girl. She left her new born baby at the hospital and disappeared. Jance seems to have such interesting plots and characters in her books. I enjoyed Lucy, the Irish Wolf Hound. She was a unique character in the story. There was no action in the story, but I was kept engaged through-out. The book is a pleasant change of pace type of book. The phrase, unexamined, has led some to foolishly charge the Almighty with a capricious nature. Some might even be led to think that a philosophy of determinism is evident in the Bible. Nothing could be further from the truth. God does not will suffering upon human beings. God is just and righteous in all of his ways. Determinism is a pagan philosophy. Such a view of God and His universe has nothing to do with the doctrine of predestination or the sovereignty of God.Emma, who is Giles's sister, is Harry's girlfriend and goes to meet Maisie, Harry's Mother. While the letter by Tom Bradshaw (Harry) is lying on Maisie's mantelpiece, Emma recognizes the handwriting and believes that Harry is still alive. Not allowed to open the letter, she sets out to find Harry. She works on Kansas Star, the ship in which Harry was saved, and from there, she gets to know about the people Tom Bradshaw was with in his last moments. On visiting their home, she realize that Harry himself is Tom and is now in prison. The Sins of the Father also follows the progression of Emma Barrington, Harry's only love, and his mother Maisie. The novel shares the point of view of four five focal characters that are integral to the story's progression. Archer recounts the happenings of Hugo Barrington, Emma Barrington, Maisie Clifton, Giles Barrington, and Harry Clifton over the years during War World II. Each character is unforgettable and that is what's most enticing about these novels. I have to know what happens to them. It's not an option not to.

Meanwhile Emma Barrington, the young woman in question, travels to New York. She has left their son behind in England, having decided she’ll do whatever it takes to find the man she had hoped to marry – unwilling to believe that he died at sea. The only proof she has is a letter – a letter that has remained unopened and unread on a mantelpiece in Bristol for over a year, but the hand is unmistakeable. It is the story of a Mob child who thought “no one could have asked for a better father” than his because “he spent more time with me [him] than any of the other fathers in the neighborhood spent with their children”. He soon discovers, though, that not everything is what seems. He starts wondering about the strange conversations between his father and the numerous “uncles” that pervade his life. His father never avoids the questions and tells it to him as it is. Albert then tries to make sense of the newly discovered facts: “Uncle Vinny a thief? But he seemed so nice, and I could tell my father liked him. If my father liked him, he must be all right.” This novel doesn't stand alone - you must read Only Time Will Tell first - and has no more than a couple of chapters of plot relevant to the bigger saga. Or perhaps 1.9 chapters, given that the single thread defining this novel is left incomplete. As a result, this short book is stuffed with exceptionally dull filler. So even though I felt the good characters were all sooooo good and the bad characters were nothing but bad (and you read about the SAME FIVE YEARS from three or four points of view which gets irritating, especially in Book 1), I still read both books in the series continuously for 10 hours and didn't put them down. Clifton Chronicles should have been a single book and not broken into five - this becomes much clearer with the Sins of the Father. More like any middle sections of even good stories, this book is meaningless for anyone who does not remember the details of events from Book 1. The story moves along but appears without any plot and certainly without any satisfactory end to any of the major intrigues.The Sins of the Father is the second of the seven parts of the Clifton Chronicles by British author Jeffrey Archer. The book was published worldwide in 2012. [1] Plot [ edit ] This is not a formula book with continuing characters just dropped into a random plot line. The story is complex and unfolds layer after layer. Events in the past threaten to disrupt the present, and off course, the investigation path leads to a murder. Giles joins the army and is captured by Germans. He manages to escape but a fellow soldier who was his close friend is killed. He is awarded the Military Cross. This 24th offering starts with a missing person’s case. An old acquaintance, Alan Dale, is trying to discover the whereabouts of his daughter, Naomi. It seems she disappeared soon after delivering a baby girl at the local hospital. Jance has J.P. following a convoluted path to finding first Athena’s mother, and then her father.

The Sins of the Father is the second book in Jeffrey Archer’s highly acclaimed The Clifton Chronicles, Archer’s most ambitious work in four decades as an international bestselling author. The phrase, “the sins of the father,” is of Biblical origin. But “sins of the father” also appears in select works of antiquity. The phrase itself and the concept of the consequences of sin passing from one generation to another are found throughout English literature, film, and even popular music.

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The cult is only one piece of a complex puzzle. She puts the rest of it together as if she is a detective This book has been on my father’s shelf for years. He has always told me to read it, and for some reason, I finally decided that now was the time. And what a book this was. Only days before Britain declares war on Germany, Harry Clifton, hoping to escape the consequences of long-buried family secrets, and forced to accept that his desire to marry Emma Barrington will never be fulfilled, has joined the Merchant Navy. Emma seeks the help of her Great-aunt Phyllis in New York and her son Alistair who is a lawyer. She learns of Harry's recruitment in the army. Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.