Only Time Will Tell - Jeffery Archer

My first ever fiction novel was "The Prodigal Daughter" by JA and I had loved it! Had read all the JA novels available, and so far The Prodigal Daughter remains my JA favorite.

Only Time Will Tell starts off in Jeffery Archer style, you actually feel the characters. JA's writing style makes you ponder if you will ever make friends like Giles Barrington and Al Derkin, you crave for a mentor like Jack Tar...thats what I love about Jeffery Archer novels. He breathes life into the characters. However, although the characters are strongly sketched, the story somehow ends abruptly...very unlike JA. I was disappointed reading this one...

The backdrop is the rise of Hitler, and the possibility of WW2 is inevitable. Harry Cliffton, the protagonist, is a fatherless child and as he grows up he realizes that the death of his father is a well protected secret by the family. He happens to meet an old man by the name Jack Tar, who not only becomes his mentor but a life-long friend. Little does Harry know that his mother, Jack Tar, his school teacher and Miss Monday, the music teacher, have instrumented the whole act of ensuring that Harry is motivated in studies and choir singing rather than pursuing his dreams of working on the docks.

The parts where Giles confesses to have stolen candies to save Harry from being expelled from the school, as well as Harry's loyalty towards Giles are very sentimental. Harry starts noticing that although Giles's mother is kind and does not bother too much about Harry's background, Giles's father makes obvious, in not one but many ways, his resentment towards Harry. The first half of the book has Jeffery Archer's flavor; but the second half of the book lets you down.

While the first part of the book sketches out each of the characters, the second half of the book is all about the deep secrets about Harry's father's existence. Giles's father is potentially the birth father of Harry, and hence his animosity towards Harry becomes apparent. However, the twist is when Harry falls for Giles's sister, and potentially his half sister. The story ends abruptly in the last 50 pages, where Harry leaves his bride at the altar and migrates to the United States, where he gets arrested. Harry uses a false identity to enter the States, and the identity of the person used is being charged for murder! Thats how the story ends....well sorry for the spoilers, but I generally read the first 40-50 pages and then switch to the last page, and then read the rest of the book :) There was no logical end to this book, but after reading the book I googled and found out that this a tri-series and was already planned by JA. Well, only time will tell....

All in all, if you are a JA fan, you can skip this one. There is nothing different about this creation of JA.