Book Review: Cometh The Hour by Jeffrey Archer #Story-Mentor

This book review is part of the #Story-Mentor group assignment given by @Michelle.Gent You can check out the tag if you like to read more stories from this group!

I write this not as a book review, but someone who first dove into the world of fiction with Jeffrey Archer's Kane and Abel & First Among Equals, along with all his short stories.

But as with most things in life, you eventually outgrow it. Recently my pops got me a couple of JA books for my birthday as he remembered me reading them as a kid. One of them was 'Cometh The Hour'. Which is the penultimate book in the series of 7, titled 'The Clifton Chronicles'.

Unlike JA who leads the reader down a rabbit hole only to find a lion's den at the very end. My conclusion of the book comes at the start. This isn't the best you will read from this author. Why? Read below:

It is a bit predictable. If you have previously read Archer’s books, you can accurately guess the storyline.

The protagonist is an author himself and it constantly appears that Archer is trying to live his unfulfilled dreams as an author through this character by basing several incidents from his own career/ life.

After having read the previous 5, this just feels slow and you really want the chronicles to end soon.

The story meanders.

On the cover you see icons of India and as an Indian I waited for the India bit. The story in India lasted as long as Jennifer Lopez' acting career. I felt let down. It came across more as a marketing ploy to sell his book in India where he has quite the fan base!

There are some plots in the book which you could completely skip reading and still not miss out on a single aspect of the original story!

Nonetheless I loved reading the book. It transported me back to my childhood where I would spend hours re-reading Archer’s novels. The writing style felt so familiar, as if you were having your favourite childhood meal!

It might have been lacking on many fronts, but I was immersed in it till the very end. Recommended for anyone who is an Archer fan, else you would be wise to skip it!

The international cover

The Indian cover. Notice 'Gateway of India' on the cover and nothing else. Probably helped sell a few more thousand copies here!