Cometh the Hour (The Clifton Chronicles) Audio CD – Unabridged, 25 Feb. 2016

This is another great book by Jeffrey Archer bringing all the characters up to 1978. The Clifton’s, The Barrington’s and all the supporting cast make Cometh the Hour (book 6) compulsive reading. JA is a master story teller with so many twists and turns that keep you moving along in anticipation. I found myself in a little bit of a quandary though. The next and final instalment of this series is ‘This Was a Man’ (Book 7 of the Clifton Chronicles) and will be released on the 3rd November 2016 and I tried to read this book very slowly so that there wouldn't be too much of a gap between books 6 and 7. However, as much as I tried, I couldn’t do it – it was a compulsive page-turner. I am now feeling angry with myself for not going with my first instinct and reading more slowly! I promise you that you will be enmeshed in the story telling and will be happy that you have read The Clifton Chronicles. I would love to see this series of books made into a TV series - I think it would make very good viewing.

The sixth book in The Clifton Chronicles does not disappoint. Each chapter has you reading "just another chapter" before you have to put the book down to get on with your day to day. Harry, Emma, Giles, Sebastian and the other characters are back with more trials and tribulations in their lives. As with the characters that try to bring the Cliftons and Barringtons you wonder what are they going to do next?? How do they keep getting away with things - you just wish they would get their comeuppance, and when something doesn't go their way you think "about time"!!! Jeffrey Archer still has the reader turning page after page to find out what is going to happen next - the sign of a brilliant writer who keeps his audience captivated from the beginning of the book until the last page has been read and makes you want more.

'Cometh the Hour' is the penultimate book in the Clifton Chronicles and in some respects it is a slightly more melancholy tale than the previous books in the series as some of the characters who have featured in the earlier novels reach the end of their natural lives. Such is the power of Jeffrey Archer's writing that if you are, like me, completely engrossed in the lives of the main characters, then reading of their passing is quite an emotional wrench. However, the plot still has plenty of surprises to keep us turning the pages at a rapid rate and to amaze us at the depths some people will go to in their pursuit of wealth or revenge.I am looking forward to reading the seventh, and final, book in the series ... but with some trepidation as quite a number of the Clifton and Barrington families are now in their twilight years and Jeffrey Archer has already proved in this sixth volume that he can write some very touching and heart-wrenching scenes.I'll certainly be sorry to finish this wonderful saga as it has provided me with so much enjoyment over the past few weeks.

There are a few chapters in this Book 6 that brought tears to my eyes. The strings of events are so related to real people that I felt as if I've been drawn into the Barringtons family room. Listening to their banters, relating to their hardships from as far back as Book 1. Not that you have to read Book 1 to understand the story, but if you have not started on the Clifton Chronicles at all, it is preferably the most sensible thing to do.As some of the characters come to pass, I felt as if I was part of the family, I could feel their loss. Especially knowing how they have struggled to get to where they were. And when that eulogy was read, I cried.This family saga is heart wrenching, poignant, thrilling, with a lot of political and business nerve wrecking boardroom drama, all thrown into one big plot. These are all so well researched and seemed so real.I just can't get enough of Jeffrey Archer. He said in an interview that he is a storyteller. I guess that's what distinguish between an author and a storyteller.Next adventure - Book 7, the finale.

What a story teller. I thought that I had read all Archer's books but oh joy! I discovered the last two in the Clifton Chronicles. This is the sixth. A ' health hazard warning' should be placed on them as I have sat with my heart in my mouth, hardly breathing with the suspense of what will happen next but I am still alive to go through it all again with the last book in the series. A wonderful experience to be enjoyed, like jumping out of a plane, which I did 22 years ago on my 60th birthday.

Almost everyone who reads this book will have read the previous 5 in the series, and I am one of them. The very fact that one chooses to read the book means that the story is gripping. Archer does continue to spin a good yarn, but I now feel that enough is probably enough. the twists in the plot are somewhat predictable and the central characters are becoming played out. Inevitably he finishes on a note of uncertainty and one assumes that volume 7 will come in due course. Please let it be the last. I have thoroughly enjoyed the books, but all good things must come to an end. Whereas in the past I moved seamlessly from one book to the next, it does not concern me whether number 7 appears in 6 months or 6 years. That should tell it's own tale.

I have read all the Clifton Chronicles to date, enjoyed them all immensely and will now have to try to be patient until the publication of the next one in November.'Come The Hour' continues the story of the Clifton family, with Harry embarking on a mission that gets him arrested in Russia. His wife, Emma, goes from strength to strength as Chairman of Barrington Shipping and also taking on a voluntary role at the local hospital. We share Sebastian 's love life through its ups and downs and share his shock and grief and, finally, his joy as he reunites with Samantha and his precocious daughter, Jessica.The villains, Sloane, Mellors and the scheming Lady Virginia continue to be thorns in the sides of the family, before Karma finally catches up with them.All together an excellent read.