Cometh the Hour

This sixth, and penultimate, addition to the Clifton Chronicles series (after Mightier Than the Sword) continues with the Cliftons and the Barringtons in the 1970s%E2%80%94their family fortunes and travails, love affairs, political dramas, business mishaps and espionage entanglements. The story begins with a libel trial and a suicide note, bringing embarrassment and consequences for Emma and Harry Clifton, Lady Virginia Fenwick, and Sir Giles Barrington. Sir Giles, in love with an East German translator, risks everything to bring her over the Berlin Wall and to England, but is she smitten or a spy? Meanwhile, Lady Virginia, Sir Giles's ex-wife, is becoming desperate after having been financially cut off by her father. She victimizes a wealthy, gullible American in an outrageous scam, but the victim's wife is on to her. Emma's husband, best-selling author Harry Clifton, uses his photographic memory and oratory skills to help the world recognize a Nobel Prize-winning, imprisoned Russian author. Emma and Harry's son, Sebastian, still has a messy love life which now turns shockingly violent. Archer continues his storytelling magic to create characters of spellbinding substance, and readers can count on his surprising twists and shocking conclusion. Here, just when the end seems too tidy, Archer provides a killer cliffhanger. (Feb.)