Acclaimed author Jeffrey Archer returns with MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD, the fifth novel in his internationally bestselling series, The Clifton Chronicles. He opens with a two-page family tree detailing the Clifton and Barrington chronologies. Here, we are reminded that Harry Clifton has married Emma Barrington. In this latest installment, Sir Giles Barrington, Emma’s brother; his ex-wife, Lady Virginia Fenwick; and Harry and Emma’s son, Sebastian, play major roles in the story’s development. 

By 1964, Emma is now Chairman of Barrington Shipping while Harry is elected president of English PEN, with an opportunity to aid a fellow writer, Anatoly Babakov, who is imprisoned in a Russian gulag. The prologue finds the Cliftons at sea on the maiden voyage of the MV Buckingham, Barrington Shipping’s newest ocean liner, from Bristol to New York. Emma receives a vase of flowers from HRH The Queen Mother as a “bon voyage” gift and is grateful for the attention. 

Harry cannot sleep and finally realizes that the card’s signature is flawed. He immediately springs into action with Giles and the ship’s captain. An IRA plot is foiled when Harry and Giles grab the vase, race to the ship’s deck and throw it overboard as a bomb inside it detonates. Emma calls her Board together, explains the situation, and makes clear that none of them will reveal the near-disaster. Thus, Archer sets the stage for his major plot line: Lady Virginia Fenwick’s quest to embarrass and destroy Emma, her company and her family’s good name.

"Although previously familiar with just one book in the series, I eased into the total picture that Archer paints with his characters and look forward to catching up on the earlier stories as soon as possible."

In British stories, bankers most often play significant roles as the plot unfolds. Sebastian Clifton is young, enthusiastic and upwardly motivated. He admires Cedric Hardcastle, the aging chairman of Farthing’s Bank and hopes to advance his career there with the old man’s blessing. But Adrian Sloane, Sebastian’s immediate superior at the bank, loathes him and plays his hand under the table. When Cedric dies unexpectedly, Adrian skips the funeral and instead calls a directors’ meeting in London, with the purpose of electing himself Chairman of Farthing’s. Consequently, Sebastian is now out of a job. 

Meanwhile, Emma has publicly accused Lady Virginia of undermining her leadership at Barrington Shipping by manipulating shares to place her own choices on the Board. Lady Virginia, who shows her colors as the real villain, files a lawsuit against Emma for slander and libel. The pot percolates throughout both major and minor side stories before erupting in court in the final chapter. 

Harry battles demons of his own, in the form of a Russian Communist government that imprisons authors who write books outside the Party line. He travels there to locate and bring back to his New York publisher the Babakov manuscript titled Uncle Joe, a personal exposé about Joseph Stalin. When Emma’s trial begins, Harry is nowhere to be found.

MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD describes how the British dealt with Russia during the days when East and West Berlin were divided by a wall, when Checkpoint Charlie offered a gateway to western freedoms. The story in The Clifton Chronicles is told within a short timeframe in the 1960s, but across a wide panorama of conflicting ideologies. Labour vs. Conservative politics, gentry vs. commoners, and freedom vs. imprisonment all become important aspects of the novel, the themes of which are skillfully played out in the words penned here.

Although previously familiar with just one book in the series, I eased into the total picture that Archer paints with his characters and look forward to catching up on the earlier stories as soon as possible.