Play Book Tag discussion

Only Time Will Tell is the first book in a series called The Clifton Chronicles which is expected to cover about 100 years of the Clifton family. The story begins in 1920 in Bristol, England where we are introduced to Maisie, the widow of Arthur Clifton and the mother of young Harry. Harry loves to spend time at the dockyards and wants to become a sailor. He has a beautiful voice and is eventually offered a scholarship to St. Bede’s, a posh boarding school, where he becomes best friends with the aristocratic Giles Barrington.

What we don't know is that the week before her wedding to Arthur, Maisie spent the night with Hugo Barrington, Giles father. She has always assumed Harry is Arthur's son, but she can't be sure. The first two thirds of the book deal with Harry's life at the boarding school and his struggle to overcome his social position. He also spends a lot of time with a man who becomes his mentor, Old Jack Tar. Old Jack lives in a railway car at the docks and knows much of Harry's history, as well as the real story surrounding his father's death.

If you like a big, bold family history that spans generations in a soap opera style you are going to enjoy this book. It's narrated by several different people and each section starts off with a name and a time frame. For example, Harry Clifton – 1920-1933, Maisie Clifton – 1921-1936, Hugo Barrington – 1925-1936, etc. This means that some of the same incidents were woven in multiple sections of the book and from different perspectives. I enjoy this style but it may slow the story down for some readers.

I thought it was a fascinating look at what life in England was like between two different classes of people, in the period between World War I and the outbreak of World War II. This book primarily introduces characters, relationships, and conflicts that will be more fully developed in the remaining six Clifton Chronicles. The second book, Sins of the Father, is supposed to pick up immediately after the first book.

I read this back in 2016 and loved it, the series and all his writing.

He has a new series he started which follows a London Inspector
the first book is Nothing Ventured, It is not my taste, and only read the first but I do know you love mystery fiction-have you read it?

I have it on my TBR but haven't read it. It definitely looks like my cup of tea. I might take a look at the audio. It's good walking weather here in Arizona and I love walking to a good story.

I really loved this series. I read many of the books twice just to remind myself of the earlier events while waiting for the next book. I really loved the story of Maisie, particularly because he admitted that part of it was based on his own mother. I didn’t get very far in the detective series, but I liked the art theft mystery.

For decades I read everything he wrote. His short story collections were a must for long car rides. They all had a little twist.

I've seen that so many people like this author, and his books generally get good reviews, but I just can't bring myself to read anything by him just because of who he is.

Understandable Hannah. I started reading him long before I knew about his shady past-but I was able to just put it aside. I know some people aren't able too, and that is ok-