A second installment in a planned five-part series finds Harry despairing of a marriage to Emma and joining the Merchant Navy before assuming the identity of a fallen American soldier whose past proves even more turbulent than Harry's own. - (Baker & Taylor)

A second installment in a planned five-part series that began with Only Time Will Tell finds Harry despairing of a marriage to Emma and joining the Merchant Navy before assuming the identity of a fallen American soldier whose past proves even more turbulent than Harry's own. 300,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)

From the author of the international bestseller Only Time Will Tell, Jeffrey Archer picks up the sweeping story of the Clifton Chronicles with The Sins of the Father.

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. But his ship is sunk in the Atlantic by a German U-boat, drowning almost the entire crew. An American cruise liner, the SS Kansas Star, rescues a handful of sailors, among them Harry and the third officer, an American named Tom Bradshaw. When Bradshaw dies in the night, Harry seizes on the chance to escape his tangled past and assumes his identity.

But on landing in America, he quickly learns the mistake he has made, when he discovers what is awaiting Bradshaw in New York. Without any way of proving his true identity, Harry Clifton is now chained to a past that could be far worse than the one he had hoped to escape.

International bestselling author Jeffrey Archer returns with his most ambitious work of epic storytelling—a multi-generational saga of fate, fortune, and redemption that began with ONLY TIME WILL TELL. - (McMillan Palgrave)

Jeffrey Archer was educated at Oxford University. He has served five years in Britain's House of Commons and twenty years in the House of Lords. All of his novels and short story collections-including Only Time Will Tell, Kane & Abel, and A Prisoner of Birth-have been international bestselling books. Archer is married with two sons and lives in London and Cambridge. - (McMillan Palgrave)

Booklist Reviews

The second volume of the multigenerational family saga begun in Only Time Will Tell (2011) begins in 1939. Brit Harry Clifton, trying to run from his past, has adopted the identity of an American who was lost at sea, but Harry doesn't bargain for the dead American being wanted for murder. Meanwhile, Emma Barrington, Harry's lover (and the mother of his child), abandons her upper-crust life to journey to America, where, she believes, Harry is still alive. The novel spans the WWII years, but the war serves more as a backdrop to the story (although it plays rather a larger role in Harry's portion). Like Only Time Will Tell, the narrative unfolds through alternating points of view—the first section is Harry's, the second Emma's, and so on—and it isn't until we're most of the way through the novel that we are able to fill in the blanks. An excellent sequel to an ambitious novel and a definite indicator that this series could be destined for big things. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Something old (print publicity, television advertising) and something new (social-network advertising aimed to capitalize on Archer's 100,000 Facebook friends) will help drive the 300,000 first printing into eager readers' hands. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.