Only Time Will Tell

Library Journal Internationally best-selling British storyteller Archer (A Prisoner of Birth) launches his most daunting literary project—a five-volume, semiautobiographical, multigenerational epic. In 20-year segments sweeping through the 20th century and into the 21st, Archer's creative page-turner features the precocious Harry Clifton, an intellectually gifted youth from the Bristol dockyards mingling in the grand estate of a millionaire shipping magnate and challenged by secrets, mysteries, growing pains, and life-changing decisions regarding his own paternity and destiny. In this first volume, the memorable cast of heroes and villains takes readers from 1920 to the outbreak of World War II—the first 20 years of Harry's life. The second volume, Tempered by War (coming in 2012), will span the next two decades, and so forth with the remaining three volumes in the series. VERDICT General readers as well as Archer fans will enjoy this unforgettable tale, which abounds with cliff-hangers that propel its intriguing and intricate plot (in the style of his Kane and Abel). Order multiples. Readers will eagerly anticipate the upcoming volumes.[250,000-copy first printing; major marketing campaign.]—Jerry P. Miller, Cambridge, MA